Weekly Lesson: The Shopping Mall

It was 1984, a new shopping mall was being built in my town complete with a supermarket which would incorporate the services currently provided by our entire row of High Street shops. My Grandmother immediately declared the idea of a mall “evil” (she said that about most new things anyway) and refused to go anywhere near it along with the old cronies who wanted to remain loyal to their friends who managed the little shops in the town.

I remember the day the mall opened, we thought we had arrived. It felt like we were now living in New York. A shopping mall, new ideas, new shops, a future, growth and most of all hope that our communities could change and grow. Just like we had seen in American TV shows like Dallas. There was no longer a feeling of a fading breath of the past, there was some kind of future appearing! This shopping mall was built over the river which flowed underneath it.  It even had a fountain in the shape of an old mill wheel at the bottom, paying lip service to our past and a Supermarket which was bigger than anything any of us had seen before.  The new local radio station had also set up shop here. For a teenage boy like me, this ticked all the boxes. Finally a place to go – it (eventually) had a coffee shop which replaced the old tea room in the town centre and had a pub.  I was offered a job playing the piano there at night. I managed to hide that new job for two weeks until my parents found out and then I wasn’t allowed to go back. I was under age to be in a pub anyway  but it was the first time I felt like an adult, even if it was only for a short time. It was after all the 80s. We were modernising!

Mrs Manders who owned the newsagents in the town died a few years later, bitterly complaining that the supermarket in the mall had taken her business and killed her husband with the shock of it opening. All three of her sons were working in the new mall but she overlooked that. She was right though, the supermarket sold everything. We didn’t need her anymore. Especially the gossip, there wasn’t much happening in the town that she didn’t know about. It was like she could hear the grass growing. I often joked that her high necked collar on her dress with the Cameo Brooch was somehow linked to a transmitter.

Mrs Beck who owned the fishmongers retired and she wasn’t too far off the mark either – the supermarket didn’t actually sell fresh fish, it was frozen fish.  Still we didn’t care, it’s not like we wanted to cook it – we just wanted to buy it. We were British. Far too busy to think about our parents, families or cooking.   There was more cash available than before.

By 1990 all of these little shops were gone and the town centre lay bare.  One shopping mall dominated the area and the High Street was simply boarded up. American shopping habits were sweeping the nation.

Those little shops in the town centre lay empty for many years and as more factories closed, less and less of the streets in the centre of town were used.  There were rumours that the landlords had intentionally left these shops empty to support the local shopping mall – perhaps because they had a stake in it, but the truth was more simple. These buildings were all owned by English landlords who were busy investing in  the London area, where the “real money” was.

In recent years the Scottish Government has passed a law which enables it to repossess buildings which have been empty for a number of years. This means that the landlords (who are usually English) lose control of them and ownership is passed to the Scottish Government. It is quite normal to see empty shops with repossession notices on the front of these old empty buildings today. In many cases it is even unclear who the owners actually are as they are lost in archives somewhere of long forgotten companies or sold on to foreign investment companies.  It is a good thing because many of these old buildings were bought up at auctions and then left to rot. Something had to be done to tidy up our town centres.

Roll forward to 2024 and now the mall is old, the fountain has gone, many of the shops are empty and it is up for sale. The radio station is now online only and broadcasts centrally from London. It just looks worn. The windows which once gave a panoramic view of the river, are covered in graffiti and look out on to a Church which has been vandalised, having been closed some years before and a river full of supermarket trolleys.  It looks like a fading actress who still thinks she is living in the best years of her life when in reality these are the last days of her life, but she is the last person to realize this.

 I noticed that one of my cousins still works in the card shop in the mall. During my last visit, we waved at each other but didn’t exchange any greetings. So much was said in that wave, a yearning that things could be different, a memory of the past when we played as children and the years which have passed in our lives, the glance and wave lasted less that 10 seconds but we both understood. Things are different now in adulthood and too many years have passed for us to be reacquainted. Now we are simply people who acknowledge our past together and it is enough to say hello.  It has that awkwardness that people feel when  they meet an old flame, a person from the past, who doesn’t belong in the present. I used to ask my parents innocently why they didn’t keep in touch with cousins or relatives.  But now, I understand, its simply about moving on and the years which have created a gulf between us.

As for the town centre, well the local Government has started a regeneration campaign including bringing in new businesses and encouraging local shops. Also renting out space to heritage groups and art galleries. Pedestrianising the precincts really helps, we can walk through the town now, without worrying about cars and trucks but with lack of investment from the private sector, nothing is likely to change fast.

Still, the town is sound at heart and  I am sure it will once again rise. We have all moved on, mostly to other places, with new experiences in new cities and countries . What the future will look like in my town will likely be determined by future generations who will forget our industrial past and with a clean slate will make things anew without being burdened by emotions and memories of what it could have been like first time round.

I blame ourselves though, we didn’t try to keep our town centre alive, we were simply spectators in a game which none of us could change. We had enough money and  things to keep us occupied and that’s all we really cared about.  Were we selfish or could we have tried harder? – Probably a bit of both.  Meanwhile the game continues, and more, younger spectators are gathering for the next round.