Shopping Centres With Weird Names

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Prompted by CJ mentioning her all-day shopping spree at the Oracle in Reading. I mean, the Oracle. What were they thinking? Like at least when Teletext was called Oracle it was telling you something. There is nothing remotely Delphiesque about shopping!

Why do they give shopping centres such weird names?

― MarkH (MarkH), Monday, 14 October 2002 09:34 (twenty-three years ago)

...and who was that Arndale geezer anyway?

― MarkH (MarkH), Monday, 14 October 2002 09:34 (twenty-three years ago)

I have no idea, but the Best Thing To Happen To Manchester Ever (TM) was when that place was blown up. The centre of town is much nicer now. As it was, the Arndale Centre was the only building I have ever seen to be externally adorned with exactly the same kind of crappy yellow tiles that you normally find in gents' urinals. I ask you.

And..... Bluewater? Sounds more like something made by Davidoff for the unsuspecting townie market....

― lol p xx, Monday, 14 October 2002 10:06 (twenty-three years ago)

anything's better than 'Lakeside'.

― g-kit (g-kit), Monday, 14 October 2002 10:09 (twenty-three years ago)

But that's a lovely name! It makes me think of lakes. And sides!

― N. (nickdastoor), Monday, 14 October 2002 10:10 (twenty-three years ago)

St Enoch Centre. Beat that.

― Plinky (Plinky), Monday, 14 October 2002 10:13 (twenty-three years ago)

whereas Bluewater makes me think of Bloo, which goes in your loo.

― MarkH (MarkH), Monday, 14 October 2002 10:14 (twenty-three years ago)

the stillorgan shopping centre, which of course makes perfect sense as it is in a suburb called stillorgan. however many people who are not from dublin find name hilarious.

― angela (angela), Monday, 14 October 2002 10:16 (twenty-three years ago)

there used to be a pizza place in the local mall called the "Organ Grinder," which was named after the little italian stereotype with the cup and the monkey leashed to him but which we as children found hilarious, especially when ordering slices of sausage pizza.

― felicity (felicity), Monday, 14 October 2002 10:24 (twenty-three years ago)

"the stillorgan shopping centre"

I work there!

― weasel diesel (K1l14n), Monday, 14 October 2002 10:25 (twenty-three years ago)

The O2 Centre in Swiss Cottage. I mean, what the fuck. This was built and named before BT Cellnet's rebranding as O2, so the name is inexplicable. The closest we could come up with was that it was supposed to be O-Zone, but they didn't realise ozone is actually O3 and not O2 at all.

― kate, Monday, 14 October 2002 11:16 (twenty-three years ago)

How about the Blanchardstown 'Town' Centre? It's not a shopping centre, it's so much more.

― Lara, Monday, 14 October 2002 11:19 (twenty-three years ago)

"Salford Shopping City" has always been a puzzlement, cos it's just a bulletproof rectangle with some shops. Why call it a city?

― Graham (graham), Monday, 14 October 2002 11:23 (twenty-three years ago)

Salford becoming a city was some cunning sop provided to stop them moaning without having to actually spend any money, I believe.

― N. (nickdastoor), Monday, 14 October 2002 11:25 (twenty-three years ago)

Salford being a city is a whole different issue. "Salford Shopping City" is a horrible block of shops where you go to get robbed, and the name has always striked me as wildly optimistic.

― Graham (graham), Monday, 14 October 2002 11:36 (twenty-three years ago)

(Though I often admire their optimism)

― Graham (graham), Monday, 14 October 2002 11:37 (twenty-three years ago)

Wood Green has a Shopping City too. And there are lots of Villages which aren't, like Bicester Village.

― MarkH (MarkH), Monday, 14 October 2002 11:38 (twenty-three years ago)

There's Buchanan Galleries, which sounds so lovely a culture-full, but it's just shops..

― Plinky (Plinky), Monday, 14 October 2002 11:40 (twenty-three years ago)

And Prince's Square, which isn't a square.

Graham - does the Salford shopping centre have a cathedral?

― N. (nickdastoor), Monday, 14 October 2002 11:42 (twenty-three years ago)

It is a cathedral to discount retail Nick. And it has a spire.

(actually, they've just stuck some massive perspex letters down the side of a nearby tower block, but same thing)

― Graham (graham), Monday, 14 October 2002 11:45 (twenty-three years ago)

Ah, the Wood Green Shopping City, but half a minute from this loely orifice. It may not be a real city, but you can certainly do some whopping in it, if what you fancy is dodgee fake Louis Vuitton handbags and assorted plastic goods from Wilkinson's.

The Pentagon Centre, in Chatham, Kent, is not only the epicentre of the Medway Towns Spew Explosion but also actually pentagonal. Kickass.

Bluewater has scary fibreglass gargoyles masquerading as sculptures (supposedly representing the old chalk quarry that used to occupy the site) lining its cornicing. 'Bluewater' is a sexier name than Greenhithe Shopping 'Mall' but is still reminiscent of Tampax adverts. Hah.

― Liz :x (Liz :x), Monday, 14 October 2002 12:27 (twenty-three years ago)

CherokeeHair Shopping Center!

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Monday, 14 October 2002 12:31 (twenty-three years ago)

Portugal Center. Not in Portugal and not in a city with lots of portuguese

― vic (vicc13), Monday, 14 October 2002 12:33 (twenty-three years ago)

it's already gone, but a block away from my home in mallorca there was a shopping center for tourists which had the name mispelled:

Chopping center

beat that :-)

― joan vich (joan vich), Monday, 14 October 2002 12:37 (twenty-three years ago)

i miss it so much. it made me smile every time i went by that street.

― joan vich (joan vich), Monday, 14 October 2002 12:38 (twenty-three years ago)

that wins

― vic (vicc13), Monday, 14 October 2002 12:46 (twenty-three years ago)

Not a shopping center, but there is a local business named WifeSavor Laundromat. It is a disturbing looking little shambles. Creepy.

Ur-mall Cinderella City is no more, but really, how evocative. It was a dump by my day.

― Hunter (Hunter), Tuesday, 15 October 2002 03:46 (twenty-three years ago)

One of the best names has to be "Roaring Meg Retail Park" - one of those Argos, Toys-R-Us and Allied Carpet-type places. I think it's near Stevenage somewhere. I wonder who Meg was, and did she really roar?

― C J (C J), Tuesday, 15 October 2002 04:07 (twenty-three years ago)

This might be a common joke, but there is a mall called the Galleria in St. Lou often referred to as the Gonorrhea.

― bnw (bnw), Tuesday, 15 October 2002 05:24 (twenty-three years ago)

I used to live up the road from the fairly innocuous St Lukes Mall [it was a mall, in the suburb of St Lukes. funny that] but woke up one morning to find i was now up the road from WESTFIELD SHOPPINGTOWN ST LUKES! Behold, a whole town of shopping! Actually it was ok, the supermarket in it had cheap creaming soda.

― petra jane (petra jane), Tuesday, 15 October 2002 05:34 (twenty-three years ago)

The Swan Center. Not a proper Swan in the whole place.

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Tuesday, 15 October 2002 09:12 (twenty-three years ago)

what is creaming soda?

― felicity (felicity), Tuesday, 15 October 2002 09:16 (twenty-three years ago)

it's this stuff you can get cheap in every Big Fresh supermarket in NZ at the moment. it's, uh, well it's a kind of soda. i can't really describe it.

― unknown or illegal user (doorag), Tuesday, 15 October 2002 09:27 (twenty-three years ago)

it's a flavour of milkshake too. hey do they have a flavour of milkshake called "protein cream" anywhere except dunedin?

― unknown or illegal user (doorag), Tuesday, 15 October 2002 09:29 (twenty-three years ago)

Dan Perry to thread, etc.

― felicity (felicity), Tuesday, 15 October 2002 15:49 (twenty-three years ago)

Is it different to cream soda?

― N. (nickdastoor), Tuesday, 15 October 2002 15:51 (twenty-three years ago)

it's already gone, but a block away from my home in mallorca there was a shopping center for tourists which had the name mispelled:
Chopping center

In DC there's a lunch place called "Canal Cafe." A vandal with a smutty sense of humor stole the first word's first letter.

― j.lu (j.lu), Tuesday, 15 October 2002 15:56 (twenty-three years ago)

haha, I love subtractive graffiti

― felicity (felicity), Tuesday, 15 October 2002 16:00 (twenty-three years ago)

what's cream soda?

― unknown or illegal user (doorag), Tuesday, 15 October 2002 20:10 (twenty-three years ago)

a light-brown vanilla-flavored soda

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Tuesday, 15 October 2002 21:34 (twenty-three years ago)

Any takers for 'Elephant and Castle'?
I've never understood how teh area came to be called that and I've lived in S.London for 32 years...

― Android (Android Elvis), Tuesday, 15 October 2002 21:51 (twenty-three years ago)

oh ok it sounds like the same stuff then

― unknown or illegal user (doorag), Tuesday, 15 October 2002 21:56 (twenty-three years ago)

Just call me the new N.

― CarsmileSteve (CarsmileSteve), Tuesday, 15 October 2002 22:19 (twenty-three years ago)

Gawd bless ya, guv ... :¬)

― Android (Android Elvis), Tuesday, 15 October 2002 22:51 (twenty-three years ago)

On the outskirts of St. Paul (borderline suburban, actually) there is a mar called "Har-Mar". The name originated from the abbreviated names of the mall's owners (?), but I'm not sure if it's common knowledge or not. It's a middle-of-the-road early '60s relic with a pretty big Barnes & Nobles and a popular movie theater but not much else except for Sean Na Na using its name for his cloying "Har Mar Superstar" alter ego.

― Nate Patrin, Tuesday, 15 October 2002 23:53 (twenty-three years ago)

Oh yeah: deadmalls.com.

― Nate Patrin, Tuesday, 15 October 2002 23:56 (twenty-three years ago)

Also "there is a mall" not "there is a mar". Fah.

― Nate Patrin, Tuesday, 15 October 2002 23:56 (twenty-three years ago)

har mar superstar roX0r, you have to see him live!!

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Wednesday, 16 October 2002 00:56 (twenty-three years ago)

I've just noticed the toweer block that has SAlford Shopping City written on it actually has an enormous perspex arrow pointing towards the actual thing. Er, why?

― Graham (graham), Sunday, 20 October 2002 14:07 (twenty-three years ago)

To show you where it is?

― N. (nickdastoor), Sunday, 20 October 2002 14:07 (twenty-three years ago)

Doesn't the, like, tower block itself do that?

(The arrow points straight downwards pretty much)

― Graham (graham), Sunday, 20 October 2002 14:12 (twenty-three years ago)

Maybe the had had problems with people arriving by human catapult.

― N. (nickdastoor), Sunday, 20 October 2002 14:13 (twenty-three years ago)

one year passes...

You people have absolutly no life.

― Cellieee Ramy, Wednesday, 28 April 2004 13:07 (twenty-two years ago)

Oh dear! You are right! Thanks for pointing it out, I wouldn't have realized it otherwise. Now I'm gonna just log off and go hunt some deer. With my bare hands.

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Wednesday, 28 April 2004 13:18 (twenty-two years ago)

You know, come to think of it, The Tricorn didn't even look like a hat.

― robster (robster), Wednesday, 28 April 2004 13:22 (twenty-two years ago)

did it look like three horns?

― MarkH (MarkH), Wednesday, 28 April 2004 13:23 (twenty-two years ago)

http://www.cliveden.org/images/tricorn.gif

http://www.portsmouth.gov.uk/pcc/residents/Planning_Images/Info%20Sheets/Tricorn.jpg

FITE!!

― robster (robster), Wednesday, 28 April 2004 13:27 (twenty-two years ago)

the roadsign looks like it's got places crossed off. Sorry, ~~those places have disappeared into the fires of hell~~ you can't go there anymore!

― MarkH (MarkH), Wednesday, 28 April 2004 13:29 (twenty-two years ago)

That sign shows the way to the naval base. Key words were covered up during WW2 to confuse the Germans. The action to remove them after the war got lost in council red-tape.

― robster (robster), Wednesday, 28 April 2004 13:36 (twenty-two years ago)

what's going on with that Spinnaker tower thing these days?

― MarkH (MarkH), Wednesday, 28 April 2004 13:42 (twenty-two years ago)

http://www.portsmouthtoday.co.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=680&ArticleID=779289

http://www.portsmouthtoday.co.uk/mk4custompages/custompage.aspx?SectionID=4565

― robster (robster), Wednesday, 28 April 2004 13:51 (twenty-two years ago)

There's one in Maspalomas in Gran Canaria called the Gumbo Centre. I reckon they were going for Jumbo.

― Onimo (GerryNemo), Wednesday, 28 April 2004 14:05 (twenty-two years ago)

WESTFIELD SHOPPINGTOWN ST LUKES

Unfortunately, Westfield has been doing this all over the U.S. They take over malls with perfectly good names and call them all Westfield Shoppingtown. So you're not sure where you are. Then you look very closely and see the old name in small print. Oh, I'm in California. Oh, I'm in Virginia. And their logo is not very nice, nor are the malls after they take over management.

― Skottie, Wednesday, 28 April 2004 14:07 (twenty-two years ago)

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