From Oxford Street to Westfield and beyond, London offers an abundance of shopping options.
Even though a lot of people visit these places now, in the 1990s, the St Nicholas Shopping Centre in Sutton was a popular destination in South London.
Like most high streets, the shopping center is mostly deserted due to internet shopping and the loss of several major businesses, yet it still boasts a Primark, Claire's, and a perfume shop.
With dwindling customers numbers, the iconic mall is set to face the same fate as many of the other UK’s shopping centres. It’ll close and be demolished.
Sutton Council announced its redevelopment plans for the town centre in October 2022, and now, having partnered with a construction company, they are well underway.
As part of the regeneration, the Council announced around 740 new homes, 50% of which will be affordable housing for local families, including nearly 300 homes for social rent, as well as a brand new ‘civic hub’, a new library and a retail centre.
Built in 1992, the centre looks straight out of a 90s chick flick.
Over the years shoppers have left a number of reviews for the mall online, withZieshan Akhtar recalling how it had once been ‘amazing’ but was now looking ‘shabby’.
He posted: ‘I still remember when this shopping centre opened in the early 90s and going as a young boy with my family to see the cool fountains (people used to treat these as wishing wells and throw coins in…), skylights and loads of amazing cool shops.
‘Now its many units especially in once famous food court on the top floor is desolate. Big names have disappeared, some escalators and lifts are non functional and fountains are all gone! My, how shabby this place has turned.’