 Writing in the "Oxford Diary" column in "The Times" in January 1984, A. N. Wilson labelled the newly-built centre as "the most grotesquely horrible building I have ever seen"; in 1985, a reporter for "The Observer" described the centre's "phoney unfunctional pipes" and Bavarian marble floors.In 1998, as the first step of a renovation of the centre, the Littlewoods store gave up of space adjacent to Cornmarket Street, to create space for a new store; this was later filled by Gap, after the landlord, Gartmore Group, wanting to make the centre more fashion-focused, rejected a larger bid from the electronics retailer Comet.Following the £5m renovation (which also involved new lighting and doors, and redecoration), the centre (now described as having of retail space) was sold to an investment partnership in July 2000, for £80m.