Shopping centres are commercial developments that bring together traditional retail stores with consumer-oriented entertainment services. They are designed to serve a larger area than a conventional mall and can be found in many cities around the world. Shopping centres have been around since ancient Rome, where commercial markets were located in public forums. In the United States, the widespread use of cars in the 1920s led to the development of shopping malls with dozens of stores and parking for cars.
A notable example is the Halton Lea Shopping Center in Runcorn, which opened in 1972 and was conceived as the central point of the development of the new city. In Europe, shopping centres are distinguished from shopping precincts (pedestrian areas in a town or city where many retail stores are located), main streets (streets with a high concentration of retail stores) and shopping parks (usually outside the city centre). A shopping gallery is a type of shopping precinct that was developed earlier and in which the connecting walkways are not owned by a single owner and can be outdoors or covered by a gallery on the ground floor. Theme or festival centres have different unifying themes that are followed by their individual stores, as well as by their architecture. The Bank Block in Grandview Heights, Ohio (192) was one of the first shopping centres or neighbourhood centres with 30 stores built along Grandview Avenue, with parking in the back for 400 cars. Many of the first shopping galleries, such as the Burlington Arcade in London, the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II in Milan and numerous galleries in Paris, are famous and continue to function as shopping centres, while many others have been demolished.
When the Cleveland Arcade opened its doors in 1890, it was one of the first covered commercial galleries in the United States and, like its European counterparts, it was an architectural triumph. A mall is a type of shopping mall, a North American term that originally meant a pedestrian walkway with stores along it, but in the late 1960s it began to be used as a generic term for large shopping centres anchored by department stores, especially closed centres. A lifestyle centre (American English), or lifestyle centre (Commonwealth English), is a mixed-use shopping centre that combines traditional retail functions with exclusive consumer-oriented entertainment services. All content on this website, including dictionaries, thesauri, literature, geography and other reference data is for informational purposes only. This information should not be considered complete, up to date and should not be used in place of a visit, consultation or advice from a legal, medical or any other professional.
