Bath, I'm with you on this one. Sometimes it isn't what our children can possibly get up to, it's what other people could do to them kwim? They might *think* they they are young adults of the world and that they are capable of being alone in the city, and chances are they could do it and have no problems at all, but you just never know. Maybe I am being over cautious though.

Could you possibly come to a compromise with them and let them go to a different shopping area they don't normally go to that isn't right in the city?