As part of our Retail 360 series, we ask Anthony Saunders, Centre Manager at mixed-use estate Islington Square, for his views on the changing role of the centre manager.

As part of our Retail 360 series, we asked Anthony Saunders, Centre Manager at mixed-use estate Islington Square, for his views on the changing role of the centre manager.

With a career that began in hospitality and spans 25 years across shopping centres and mixed-use estates – many of them in Australia – Anthony Saunders brings a distinctly people-first perspective to one of North London’s most complex assets. Now Centre Manager at Islington Square, a four-and-a-half-acre mixed-use estate comprising 264 apartments, a hotel, two office buildings, and 30 retail and leisure outlets, he joined when Workman took over property management in March 2025.

We spoke to Anthony about why no two days are the same, how the retail mix is evolving, and what it really takes to run an estate where work, home, and leisure, all collide.

My background is quite diverse. I started in hospitality – that’s where I first understood the importance of customer experience. Then I had the good fortune of working on the development of Westfield Bondi Junction in Sydney, and the last 25 years has largely been shopping centres and mixed-use estates, mostly in Australia.

When I looked at Islington Square, I saw an estate that had come through development just before Covid with some occupancy challenges that had carried over from that period. I saw it as an opportunity – a chance to work with the asset manager and team, and make a real difference.

The customers are fundamentally different, and they want fundamentally different things. In a shopping centre, there’s a rhythm to the day, and at some point it goes quiet. At Islington Square, it never goes to sleep. You have 264 residents for whom this is their home. You have office occupiers, hotel guests, retailers trading long hours. It’s 24 hours, seven days a week.

One day you’re dealing with retailer footfall issues, the next it’s lease strategy with the asset manager, the next it’s a resident concerned about planting. No two days are the same. That’s the challenge – and honestly, it’s what keeps me going.

The service charge, without question. Most schemes have a handful of schedules. Islington Square has 29. Every work order requires you to know exactly how to allocate the cost across retail, residential, office, hotel, and shared spaces. Getting the budgets right annually and reconciling them is genuinely difficult.

The resident dynamic adds another layer. This estate was sold initially as the new Covent Garden – a vibrant town centre with events and energy. But some residents moved in expecting tranquillity. Balancing those expectations, especially when you want to run events in the square, takes careful relationship management.

Quite dramatically, and quickly. When Islington Square was delivered in 2019, the expectation was a more fashion-led mix. But the estate’s anchor occupiers have driven it strongly toward leisure, lifestyle, and wellbeing. Third Space, a high-end gym, generates around 30% to 35% of our footfall. That shapes everything – the customer profile, the dwell time, the trading hours.

We’re coming to the end of some lease periods now, and we’re seeing that shift crystallise in the new occupiers we’re bringing in. One I’m particularly pleased about is Swyft – a furniture brand that started online, moved into John Lewis concessions, and has just opened their first standalone store here. It’s been very successful. That kind of unique, independent offer works well for the Islington Square customer.

We know around 45% of our customer base is aged between 25 and 45 – high-end, lifestyle-oriented, and above all, local. When I arrived, retailers were telling me people were walking straight past our two pedestrian entrances on Upper Street without realising the estate was there.

The strategy we developed with Activate, Workman’s in-house placemaking team, was to focus on the local community first. We introduced weekly Saturday markets, event activations, and invested in the physical entry points. For Christmas, we ran floral displays through the arcades with a centrepiece tree in the boulevard. Foot traffic through that entrance increased. It sounds simple, but it works.

A significant one. We work closely with Islington BID on joint marketing – the Christmas lights opening last year is a good example. We created a customer journey across Islington Borough, with the culmination at Islington Square: tree light events with local school and church choirs. That’s what makes you part of a community, rather than just a feature of it.

The young people are our future customer. If a child grows up feeling that Islington Square is their town square, that stays with them. Events involving schools and community groups aren’t just feel-good activities – they’re long-term investment in who comes here in ten years’ time.

You have to genuinely like people – all kinds, with very different needs and agendas. You have to be adaptable, because the plates you’re spinning are all spinning at different speeds. And you have to be passionate about making a difference, because this is absolutely not a nine-to-five role. The meetings and retailer visits fill the day; the emails, reports, and strategy happen early morning and evening.

We’re living it right now. The retail mix transformation is well underway, the community is growing, and we are very nearly fully let – which means we can start reaching beyond our local base with confidence. We have events like our annual Wimbledon big screen. We have a genuinely distinctive leisure anchor in Third Space. The opportunity is to make Islington Square the true town centre it was always meant to be. That work is already happening.