[manny_santos]

Wellington Square was the first, opening in 1960. I am not sure when Argyle Mall opened.

Now, Oakridge Mall was an interesting case study in the development of suburban shopping in London. It started out as six separate buildings, including Loblaws on the east end, Woolworth's on the west end, and four other buildings which included storefronts on all sides. Many of the original tenants were branches of locally-owned businesses in the downtown area. Brewer's Retail had a small seventh building in the parking lot.

It was around 1972 the mall was enclosed, and Woolco was built on the north side of the property. I'm not sure what happened to the Woolworth's store at that point, but it was converted into a Loblaws in 1989 while the original Loblaws became stores and mall administration. The Beer Store moved from the parking lot into a part of the former Loblaws. The inside of the mall had a mix of chain retailers and locally-owned businesses.

Unfortunately the mall and Loblaws were heavily neglected in the 90s, and by the time Wal-Mart left in 2003, it was clear that mall could not survive as it was. Some local grocery shoppers even avoided that store and drove to other Loblaws locations in the city to shop, as it had limited selection; some (including myself) found the store filthy in places and run down, even though it was less than 15 years old.