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Originally Posted by Simpseatles
^Great pics, thanks for sharing them! The Mews was before my time so I had no idea what it looked like until now.
I do find it surprising that for a period London actually had two downtown malls right next to each other. I mean were either of them ever really successful?
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Welcome. I had vague memories before I found those photos too.
It's astounding that there was a point in the late 80s/early 90s where developers believed 3 malls could've existed downtown. It was clearly in decline in the 1980s. Mews was a 5 level mall, Galleria took up nearly 2 city blocks and
Talbot Block/Cambridge Development would have taken up another whole block. Not enough tenants now, let alone back then.
Interesting whatever happens with the area, if or when it is redeveloped. It's a huge site, could fit another condo, office tower, maybe even downtown bus terminal. It's right in the thick of downtown yet its been 14 years and it keeps getting 3 year extensions as surface parking lot.
It's been said before on here suburban malls (sprawl) killed downtown shopping. IMO 2 things helped with the decay. 1) Parking. People are cheap, don't wanna pay to park when you can go to other malls with the same/similar stuff and not have to pay. More so now with e-commerce 2) Poor (downtown) infrastructure. Traffic is a nightmare downtown, why the hell would someone want to travel 20-30 minutes fighting traffic to get downtown, have to find a parking spot, pay for it, when a suburban mall is less time, money and hassle? Richmond goes down effectively to 2-lane road downtown with all the buses, on street parking. Still no Riverside-King St. Bridge. No downtown ring road or through streets. Other areas of London have poor road/transit infrastructure, making further travel less desirable.
Pond Mills Square is the only one I really remember in its "heyday". That whole area on Commissioners from Pond Mills to Highbury is terrible, like a warzone now due to co-ops/subsidized housing. Everyone's abondoned the area for Summerside, east of Highbury. I remember the Square actually being an indoor mall and even had a carousel. Still see remnants of it, entrance signs removed and huge crater from the mall. Supposidly
Zellers is suppose to be a Walmart but I cannot see Walmart wanting to invest in that area.