Bitersweet memories of spending your teens in Bluewater

You may recognise Bluewater as one of the greatest shopping centres to ever be built, but for many of us it means much more. It has had an active influence on the development of every teenager from Kent and the surrounding areas.

Whether you hung out there after school or it was where you spent all your pocket money, it was the place to be. As you grew up, you still somehow managed to find yourself there on shopping sprees, dates, or worse, you even got a job there.

It was something to look forward to after school

After a really long day at school you would catch the 96, and head straight through M&S to go to the food court with your school mates. Skirts rolled up or ties shortened, you thought you were the coolest squad around.

You’d go there with no intention of buying anything

You didn’t actually do anything in the shopping centre, but being there was enough to satisfy your social needs at the time.

But you’d take loads of pictures of things you’d never buy

And spend ages taking pictures in the Apple Store

To capture the fun times you were having, you would take photos in the Apple store and you would never miss an opportunity to take get a selfie with a Hollister model.

It was an amphitheatre for flirting

Back in the day visiting Bluewater by yourself was out of the question. Instead, you must have had a group size of at least six people. If you’re a girl, your girlfriends would organise a girly day shopping at Bluewater and you would beg your mum to lend you £20 so you could afford the food court and a Barry M nail varnish from Boots. If you’re a guy, you would gather with your wolf-pack to attempt a conversation with the girl that you’ve been going out with for a week. It was slightly awkward because you never actually met her before that point as you only knew her through MSN.

And then you’d progress to ‘gatherings’

Alternatively if you were over the whole girl/boy divide, you may have even got the chance to go to a few ‘gatherings’ in Bluewater. These would consist of circling the shopping centre until you got dizzy and decided to go to the cinema or hang out near the artificial pond. If you were a real rebel, you would smoke your first cigarette outside the plaza whilst sipping on some blue WKDs.

It was also a place for love

It was the place where love was found and hearts were broken. When in school, you may have had your first date there because it was the perfect place for a casual encounter or because the public location provided a sense of security in case your date was actually a catfish. If you were lucky you would head to Nandos or Pizza Hut for your date, but most of the time you would end up at the food court with a McDonalds. As you grew up, you probably upgraded to Wagamamas or Jamie’s Italian.

You can’t deny it was shopping heaven

The brilliance of Bluewater is that, apart from Primark, it actually has every shop imaginable. Need food? You can buy groceries at M&S. Need furniture? Go to John Lewis. Need anything else? There’s probably a shop for that. It’s convenient and actually a very well looked after place.

If you got a job there you’d realise it was a hell-hole

Up until getting a job at Bluewater, you thought you could never hate the place and boy were you wrong. You slowly realised that it was a microcosm for everything that was wrong with our modern and consumerist world. Most of the time, parking would be a nightmare, especially during the holidays. When you had to commute there regularly, you would moan about how far away it actually is. In general, working in retail is stressful but you still couldn’t help associating all the negativity and horrible experiences of working in a shop with Bluewater.

You may love it or you may despise it but the experience of Bluewater in its full flory will always leave you with bittersweet memories.