THE new owners of the Mall Marlands shopping centre in Southampton are to change its name back to the title most shoppers remember it by.

The indoor shopping centre in Above Bar Street will revert back to the Marlands Shopping Centre – which it was known as for more than 20 years.

The rebranding comes after the centre was bought in August last year by Rockspring UK Value Fund, a property fund administered by London based Rockspring Property Investment Managers.

Previous owners the Mall sold a quartet of its shopping centres in a £136m deal to cut debt. It is now being run by The Other Retail Group, a specially created management company.

The new owners have pledged to improve the shopping centre and its retail offer, which has suffered since the opening of rival WestQuay and the tough retail environment during the recession.

New signs are being put up inside the shopping centre which will be relaunched at the end of the month with a new website.

Jackie Beazley, marketing manager at the Marlands Shopping Centre, said: “The vast majority of people still refer to the centre as the Marlands, and our new logo has been designed around the fact that we are at the centre of the community here in Southampton.

“This is an exciting time for us, as we are looking forward to working alongside our new owners to further improve the centre.”

The centre has 51 occupied units with five empty spaces.

The Mall Marlands was opened in 1991 by controversial tycoon Gerald Ronson as part of his Heron property empire. It was taken over by The Mall Corporation in 2004.