The opening of Europe's largest city centre mall in Shepherds Bush last week saw shoppers defying the credit crunch with over 150,000 flooding through the White City complex on opening day.

The Westfield London shopping centre - the largest in-town retail complex in Europe - was open from 9am to 10pm and, according to many retailers, was busier than they had expected on day one.

Retailers reported positive footfall and sales figures with many favourably comparing activity to that in their established London stores.

Some reported sales targets being exceeded, and “a positive mood” among their staff and customers.

Shepherds Bush station on the Central Line was shut for two hours on Saturday as shoppers headed for the Westfield centre in White City, west London.

Transport for London (TfL) said that a “defective escalator" had caused overcrowding which forced the closure.

Nevertheless, the opening of the complex saw traffic queues build up around the area as peopled flocked to the centre in White City.

There were long queues on the eastbound stretch of the road between Gypsy Corner and the exit for the new Westfield Centre.

The slip road had to be closed on Saturday as police tried to regulate the amount of traffic pouring towards the new £1.7bn attraction.

Last week Acton MP Andy Slaughter predicted the new centre would cause gridlock, as a predicted 60,000 people a day tried to get to the shops.

He said: “The initial projections for this were done 12 years ago and since then obviously things have changed a lot in terms of traffic flow. All the signals are the Hammersmith and Fulham council just have not thought about this.

“There are also 7,000 jobs being created with the centre, yet they are only saying up to 1,000 of them will go to local people, which is very disappointing.”

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