Gyle Shopping Centre

The shopping mall is big, and has a good selection of shops. all shops are based on the ground floor. while the cafe/restaurants is on the top floor. which you can go there via the lift.


For the cafe in the upper deck, it is smallish, and I did not go up there very often, as waiting for the lift was off putting enough, as i can see a group of people waiting for the lift, so I cant be bothered with these hassle.


However on the shopping mall floor, it is great very easy to move around and it is quite open spaced layout, but you have to avoid bumping into the huge pots of plats which are plopped in some places around the mall, it is well light and bright, and the decor is modern, and it is very clean and very airy.


The car park is ample, and huge, but you need to remember where you have parked your car in the first place, as I have spent a while hunting for my poor car! It is free as well, so it is great!


But it is not great place to get out during the rush hours, as the roundabout nearby tends to get clogged up with commuters coming back to home, and it will take you hours to get out. So I think it is best worth to advise you to not to leave the Gyle at around 5 to 7pm, as the roundabout will get clogged up and it will take you forever to get out. so i think it is best to stay in and spend shopping and you can enjoy it more, than less enjoying yourself being idle on the tarmac outside!

The Gyle is honestly just another shopping centre. Seeming much larger than the other malls in Edinburgh but still quite small compared to the big malls in Glasgow, the centre is bright and airy with a decent amount of shops.

There are some shops here that you won't find in the city centre like WHSmith, The Disney Store and Morrisons combined with larger versions of high street stores like New Look and M&S, which are both much quieter and easier to navigate than their Princes Street stores.

There is also a large Boots, a Next, generic coffeehouse chains like Starbucks and Costa and there are some stalls around the glass lift specialising in smoothies, cookies and pretzels.

Upstairs, there is a foodcourt which offers Burger King, Metropole, McChen's, O'Briens and Spud U Like as its main vendors. Outside the centre is a branch of Frankie & Benny's. There are also cafes located within M&S and Morrisons.

The toilets in the centre are pretty clean and are well maintained, which is rare for a capital city mall.

With rumours of a new Primark on the horizon, an exciting opportunity awaits The Gyle. They will need to destroy some parking to fit it in but that doesn't matter.

Just don't expect the Metrocentre and you'll be fine. It is just basic mod con shops. Nothing too fancy.

This is a decent shopping centre, you can get your essentials, but I don't know.
It is lacking something.
They have GAP, Tommy, and a bunch of American brands along with European brands such as Dorothy Perkins and WHSmith, but something was missing.

Shoppers did not look happy...

We only spend a hour here.

I feel a bit mean giving the Gyle a 3 star score, seeing as I've shopped here so much in the past, however the definition of a 3 star is "A-OK", and that pretty much sums up my thoughts. I'm not the biggest aficionado of shopping centres in the first place, which doesn't help, but having been around for a while, I think The Gyle probably just needs a bit of a revamp and some new, funky stores to give it a lift.

Yes, it's handy, because being a shopping centre by nature, it has a roof over it, protecting you from awful daily Scottish weather, plus you can park for free. If you need something fairly normal and standard urgently, The Gyle is always a safe bet, housing Marks & Spencer, River Island, Accesorize, Boots, Dorothy Perkins, Gap, Starbucks, and HMV, amongst others. Most High Street outlets you will find, and it does have a Mathiesons in the Food Court, a brilliant wee bakery, with particularly tasty Yum Yums.

I breifly visited the Gyle Shopping Centre once while I had my car up in Edinburgh and I was in need of some items that Princes Street had filed to supply. Having been to just about everywhere else, this was my last chance saloon - and to be honest, while it did deliver, I'm not sure how much of an impression it made.

The main thing is that this place needs a good lick of paint and something new to inject the life back into it - its really is just a place where people come to shop, unlike Princes Street or somewhere simnilar in the city centre which has at least some pretty views and a sense of occasion.

I'm not sure how to end this review - the Gyle Centre is a place to shop (obviously) when all you want to do is get your things and go.

The Gyle Sopping Centre is, in my opinion, not the place to come if you're in Edinburgh and looking for a good day's shopping. Unfortunately, in comparison to Glasgow, Edinburgh doesn't really offer anything special in the way of shops. Princes Street, although it has a large selection, it about as good as it gets.
The Gyle is clean, a decent size and has a huge car park. In addition, it's got most of the shops which you would expect, from Clinton Cards to HMV. The only thing I've bought is a box of chocolates for my mum from Thornton's last year for Mother's Day. As a shopping experience it's fine, but you can't help but expect a little more both in the way of shops and general ambiance.

Considering it's the only shopping spot in a good 6 miles or so, the outlets on offer at the Gyle is pretty underwhelming, laden with all manner of mid-range retailers (Clinton Cards, Bargain Books) and an abundance of phone shops, the shining lights for me are the W H Smith (shockingly one of only 3 in the city) and Morrison's.

Morrison's.

It really is that hum-drum.

Fair enough there's a big M&S at one end, but would it kill you to have an Xile? An Urban Outfitters? Waterstones? ANY form of independent retail? Even the food outlets on offer are pallid, to the point I'll choose the Morrison's rotisserie counter if I venture over there for food on lunch.

You brag a sizable line-up, Gyle, but all I see is blah blah blah....!

I used to come here with my folks when I was fairly minute, and it was a modern and impressive shopping centre. Many moons later, it's still alright, but definitely feels a bit tired and in need of something new.

Retail space in the city centre is limited for obvious reasons, and upon it's opening The Gyle was touted as the answer for Edinburgh's shopaholics. Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, such a breed is quite rare in the city, and thus The predominant atmosphere in The Gyle is one of apathy.

To sum up, it's basically slightly bigger branches of the stores on Princes Street, and little else. Good, but nowadays I've little reason to visit other than for purposes of childhood nostalgia.

The thing I like most about Gyle is the continuous offers they have on the website. From food tasting to goody bags to fun-days for the kids, I have been to loads of great days and came home with bags full of goodies so that can only be a good thing!

The centre itself is attractive from the outside, although it would look even better with a spruce up, and inside really. It isn't as comprehensive in shopping as Princes Street or St James Shopping Centre but it is a good alternative. It has loads of big names like The Disney Store, Monsoon, New Look and Marks and Spencers. The food court is good too and perfect if you don't want to venture outwith the centre.

Open until 8pm on Weekdays, it's a great place to go for some undercover shopping.

The Centre is very light and airy as it has a glass roof which means there is natural light above you most of the time. It is also always clean and has a lot of space. You regularly see cleaners walking about the centre cleaning and they are also very pevalent in the toilets too which is good i suppose.


Enjoy your visit here!