Wednesday, April 13, 2022

Devolution of a Mall

 

The mall in southwest London was a beauty when it was first built. In its early years it was so successful that a second wing was added. But time and the coming of big box stores took a steep toll. As the mall slowly emptied the second wing was demolished but to no avail. The mall was unable to fill even the remaining stores which were now far fewer in number.

It had been a high end mall, a citywide shopping destination. Today inside the shop is almost devoid of retail outlets but an exterior wall has been modified to feature a Dollarama store.

Years ago there were those who thought the city should never have zoned the area south of the mall for big box stores. Those retail businesses could have been located within the mall. Westmount is a fine example of poor city planning and the Dollarama store is a hint at what could have been done but wasn't.

1 comment:

William Kendall said...

There's a former mall here that is much the same.