Southland, Nepean Highway Cheltenham.

Along with Chadstone, Eastland and Northland, Southland, which opened in 1968, is one of the original big four malls in Melbourne, built by Myer in the mid to late sixties. The original logo looked like this:

Place is looking kinda bloated these days:

And there's no proper signage in view from the highway.
This entrance is down under the famous bridge, which joins the two halves of the centre. Not very welcoming, but then this place is meant to be approached via the massive, shadecloth-draped car parks.

And here's the bridge itself:

It is two storeys high, and has a food court- you could probably make a stand-alone centre out of the bridge alone if you wanted. That window is a bit under used- it's tucked away in the back of a camping goods store where you have to pretend you want to buy a tent or some lycra socks to enjoy the view north back up the Nepean to the city:

In the central atrium, they have a TV that is like, two storeys tall. It shows ads, all day. And everyone seems to ignore it.

But have a look at this pic, from 1968:

The water feature is long gone but that's still recognisably the same place. I wonder what fashion show was going on on that stage? This is the place where I met Tom "Dr Who" Baker during a meet and greet tour he did many years ago.

It's a pity this pic isn't in colour- that tiled mural was great. There is no trace of it to be seen now, I wonder what happened to it. 

Oh, and if that is your grandma or auntie standing there, do let me know.

And finally, in this pic, from the early 1980s (note the Holden Commodore) you can see the trees of the old roof gardens. Some of that original white brickwork is still to be found down in the carpark.

Old pics from the City of Kingston historical website.

Elsewhere- own your own plaza.

Yes, it's true- the catchily named Lane Cove Coles Centre is up for sale.

Now I don't pretend to understand all of this but it sure is some mighty fine real estate jargon:

• Coles Supermarket & 5 specialty tenants offered for the first time in 25 years
• Coles accounts for 73% of gross income - lease to July 2022 plus options
• Speciality tenants include a Cellarbrations Liquor, Green Grocer, Butcher, Hairdresser and Florist
• Prime location in Lane Cove, an affluent Lower North Shore suburb approx 9.5km to the north of the Sydney CBD
• Future development potential (subject to tenant & council approval)
• Net passing income $1,600,000 p.a approx

Anyway, there is also a video tour here which you can watch if so inclined. Closing date for expressions of interest is 5 September, so you only have a couple of weeks. Maybe call your bank manager today. 
If I owned it, I'd put a waterslide through that main atrium just for the hell of it, and build myself a penthouse apartment on the roof.

Tivoli Arcade, Bourke Street Melbourne

I'm going to be looking at a few city locations over the next couple of weeks. First up (for no real reason) is the Tivoli Arcade. This is the back aspect, walking up from Little Collins Street:

I like the way it once had a cafeteria and a cafe & bar. And a copy centre, too.

The actual entrance is not too flash. Something about this reminds me of airport signage:

The arcade itself is mostly Asian-oriented these days, with a smattering of beauty parlours and a couple of Melbourne's ubiquitous cheap curry places making up the numbers:

The front entrance, off Bourke Street:

Until destroyed by a fire in 1967, the site was occupied by a theatre- built in the 1860s and called the Opera House during it's early years, it became the Tivoli in 1914:

Elsewhere- Mall Week.

This is may be kind of indulgent, but I'm hoping you will all appreciate it.
For some reason the Onion AV Club has declared this week "Mall Week" and is running a series of articles about and around shopping malls.

The first is a piece about the 1985 movie "Chopping Mall" which I must confess to not having seen. Yet.

There is also a quite lyrical article about how movie malls double as time machines , which is not as silly as it may sound.
And also, there is a great collection of 15 films with pivotal moments set in shopping malls that includes my personal favorite, "Fast Times At Ridgemont High".

Click through the links to read- I'll post updates during the week if there is anything else of note is added.

EDIT/UPDATE: Twelve songs about shoplifting
                            The beautiful artificiality of the American mallscape

Burwood special.

Depite being the location of Australia's first drive in theatre, Burwood has always struck me as a staid suburban kind of place. This is one of the local plazas- Burwood Heights, on the corner of Middleborough Road & Burwood Highway:

It's not particularly good from the inside either, although it does boast two RSPCA op shops- one cheap and one as expensive as you like: $600 vintage Japanese tea set, anyone?

But down on the corner of Blackburn Road, the next main road along the highway, the old KMart has been revamped and extended into something called Burwood One.

This place is immense, wrapped around three sides of a fairly big carpark. Look at it- it even has a TAB:

The Coles sells clothes and televisions and homewares-y stuff as well as groceries and frankly it is hard to tell if you are in there or in KMart. Oh and did I mention they are both open 24 hours?

Some of the spaces inside are a bit random and brutal but overall I give the One a 10.

Centre Arcade, Centre Rd. Bentleigh.

I do love an old-school middle suburban arcade, and this is a beauty.  On Centre Road, Bentleigh, just a bit west of the train station is Centre Arcade:

I couldn't not take a photo of the Star Dance Studios sign- that's a fine piece of vintage neon, right there

Like Battista Court in Springvale, Centre Arcade has it's name set in stone at the entrance.

The flooring inside is amazing, and in perfect condition, too.

The shops themselves aren't that inspiring- dancewear, a couple antiques/bic a brac places, a travel agent- but the sound of  latin music drifting down the stairwell almost led me to gatecrash a tango lesson upstairs.

The Links, Warrigal Road Oakleigh South.

Hmm, not much to say about this new addition to the South Oakleigh streetscape.

The name derives from the nearby golf courses, and the place is an attempt by Woolworths to wring more value out of their new Masters hardware store chain. Yawn.
The nearby corner of Warrigal Rd and Centre Rd is a shabby favorite of mine. It features a bus depot, a piano store, a home brew shop and a slew of fast food joints, none of which are as good as the Red Barn that used to be there years ago:

Anyway,I'm in danger of going right off topic here.



Northland Shopping Centre, Preston.

Northland is like Chadstone and Southland- a shopping centre big enough that it transcends the suburb it resides in. You do not go to Preston to go to Northland, you just go to Northland. When taken together with the adjacent Northland Homemaker Centre, it becomes difficult to capture anything of it other than small elements.

It has many entrances, ringed with car parks in the usual manner.

This photo was taken from the third floor of the multi story carpark, just as a storm hit.
Along with Chadstone, Southland and Eastland, Northland was part of the original "family" of Melbourne malls built by Myer in the 1960s.

Heidelberg special.

In honour of the current extravaganza in London, this post comes to you from Melbourne's own Olympic hub, Heidelberg.
It's not a part of town I am too familiar with, actually, except by reputation. But it does indeed have an old-school plaza on the main strip:

Look at that roofline layout- I wonder if Burgundy Plaza is somehow related to Coburg Plaza?
Anyway, from there you duck left around the corner and strike this amazing bit of work- the back entrance to Warringal Mall:

It was hard to get a good shot, but trust me, that is a kind of elevated walkway thing, about six feet wide, that takes you about ten feet in the air by the time you reach that doorway at the end. It felt very Logan's Run out there, a feeling which was borne out inside:
  

It's a very big open space- look, you can barely see the Dimmey's sign down the far end there- but still the whole place smells of donuts, courtesy of the Donut King.
I would happily go there again.

NB note the Mall in West Heidelberg will get it's own post in due course.

Mountain Gate Centre, Ferntree Gully

Your first impression of Mountain Gate (nb not to be confused with  Fountain Gate) depends on which way you approach. From the city:

"Hey yeah nice kinda rural-esque logo and it's got a Coles and that."
But if you are coming in from the other direction, from the Dandenongs side:

"Wow, what a stark Peter Saville/Bauhaus influenced design and it's got a Woolies with liquor and that".
This side of town is rich picking for non-uniform plazas and malls, and Mountain Gate doesn't disappoint. As you can see in this map, the place itself sprawls along the highway in a pretty unrestrained fashion, among the big box tyre stores and horse feed suppliers that line the roadsides out here. Great tile design on the outside of the toilet block, too.