Shoppers take a step back in time to era of dinosaurs at Sutton retail centre

Almost 9,000 people flocked to Idlewells Shopping Centre for the event, which featured dinosaurs roaming the mall, alongside their dino rangers – .

Children were also invited to share their summer stories with Idlewells providing a writing station for children to draw or write about the fun they have had – some of the stories and drawings will be picked to create a ‘Little Book Of Adventures’ at the end of the school holidays for the community to be able to reflect on the summer of 2022.

The centre said feedback about the event was overwhelmingly positive, with comments including from parents saying how wonderful it was that the centre can put on free activities

Stephen Salisbury, centre manager, said: “The team at Idlewells are absolutely elated with how successful our Time to Explore event went.

“It was amazing the effect the large dinosaur had on the crowd as it replicated a pied piper movement.

“We're so happy to be able to host these free family-orientated events, especially during the summer holidays and we're looking forward to reading the stories from our summer writing station to collect in our "Little Book Of Adventures" for the community.

“We hope to host more events like this in the near future and couldn't be more excited."