£1.6bn Westfield centre defies the squeeze as stores pack in

Work on London's biggest shopping centre is stepping up to a peak of activity as opening day approaches.

Next Tuesday will mark a major milestone in the £1.6billion Westfield London project - 100 days to go until opening day - while by the end of the month the number of workers on the 46-acre site will almost double to 5,000.

The 1.6 million sq ft shopping centre in Shepherd's Bush will be the third biggest in Britain after the MetroCentre in Gateshead and Bluewater in Kent - but the biggest in Europe sited near the centre of a major city.

Despite the savage downturn on the high street, Australian developerWestfield claims it has let about 92 per cent of the space in the centre.

There have been persistent rumours in the retail industry that the company has struggled to fill its top-brand zone known as The Village. So far only Louis Vuitton, Mulberry and Tiffany have definitely committed to The Village, but Westfield insists it has encountered no difficulties in filling the space.

Workers from seven of the biggest stores are already fitting out their shops ahead of opening on 30 October. They are the so-called "anchor" tenants - Marks & Spencer, Waitrose, Next, Debenhams, House of Fraser Boots and Apple. Over the next fortnight an army of workers from up to 70 more retailers will move into their stores and start putting up displays, shelves and tills.

Once the centre is open, it will have created about 7,000 jobs. Interest in working at the shopping centre's 300-plus stores, restaurants and cinemas has been far higher than expected.

Last week, a recruitment fair in Hammersmith degenerated into a fight, with two women having to be taken to hospital with head injuries. The fair, at the Novotel hotel near the Hammersmith flyover, attracted 3,000 people instead of the expected 1,000 to 2,000. The crowd had to be brought under control by mounted police.

Westfield says that as well as high-end shops, the centre will have the biggest range of quality eating places of any such site in Britain.

Last week, Michelin-starred chefs PascalAussignac and Vincent Labeyrie said they had agreed a deal to open a new venture called Croque Gascon in the centre's Eat Gallery.

The centre also has a "rippling roof" with a pattern of dark and transparent glass panels to maximise natural light during the winter but to minimise glare during the summer.

Westfield is developing the £1.5 billion Stratford City shopping centre close to the Olympic Park. When this opens in 2011, the two are expected to become the biggest-grossing retail centres in Britain.