Retail and Commerce
The High Street and adjacent Walnuts Shopping Centre contain a wide selection of high-street shops. There is a general market located in front of Orpington College, three days a week. Planning permission was granted in 2005 to demolish a multistorey car park at the south end of the High Street, and replace it with a large Tesco supermarket. Work started early February 2007 and the new Tesco opened on 18 May 2009. There are several restaurants in the town centre, including a Pizza Express.
Metered parking has been installed at various street locations around Orpington station to cope with the loss of the car park; this has resulted in the exit of some long-established local businesses as the office space they occupied will no longer be feasible without adequate parking. There are larger retail outlets in the industrial estate on Cray Avenue and Sevenoaks Way in St Mary Cray including the new Nugent Shopping Park. Following the relocation of Marks & Spencer from their previous town-centre store to the Nugent Shopping Park, their previous site was taken over by Sainsbury's, who moved from their previous site nearby in the Walnuts.
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