Indias Oldest Shopping Mall | A Silent Spectator Of Its Own Decay

in #chennai6 years ago

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The original building of Spencer Plaza.
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Spencer's Plaza is India's oldest shopping mall and was one of South Asia's biggest when it was built. It was under construction for over thirty years in the late 1800's and finally opened as the first department store in India in 1895. A commercial project by Charles Durant and J.W. Spencer during the time of the British Raj, the building was a popular landmark of Madras Presidency.

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Spencer Plaza rebuilt by C.R.Narayan Rao.
Source

Spencer's Plaza was a weekend thrill for my sister and I when we were younger. My parents would have bank work in the area and would drop us off at the book store in the mall where we would spend hours going through all the books in the shelves. Right outside the book store was a cookie shop where we would then treat ourselves to some sugary goodness. The Kolkota Chaat by the corner of the floor served some of the best chaat in the city. Spencer's was THE shopping destination. It housed brands but also the stores of craftsmen from Kashmir, Orissa and other parts of India. We got our nose and ear piercings from one of the small jewellery stores in the complex.

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Spencer's during a recent visit.

The original building was razed in fire in 1983 after a which a new complex was built in its place. The new building's atria kept elements of the original. Unfortunately, another fire broke out in the mall in 2008, destroying much of its beautiful architecture. Soon after, a 'new-age' mall cropped up a few meters away and Spencer's lost its popularity. Its drastic decrease in visitors over the years caused our book store to shut down. Retail outlets shut down. Office spaces shut down. Mall culture became a frenzy in India with some big names like the Phoenix group attracting a lot of attention. But the new malls don't have the same kind of pull that Spencer's had. All the new malls have the same stores of local and international brands - the same kind of mall you'd visit in any other metropolis.

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Favourite since birth.

Spencer's still stands today. Its old world charm is evident in its corridors and atria. Most of the shops are shut. However, the Kolkota chaat guy is still there, still serving some of the best paani puri in the city. The mall is still my go-to place to shop for unique jewellery, Pashmina and handicrafts. However, it is impossible to ignore the sense of abandon in the mall. The shopkeepers know it, visitors can see it. The building seems to stand still and watch its own popularity become a thing that exists only in people's memories.

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Atrium, Spencer Plaza, 2018.

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It is such a bubble economy out there, Spencer plaza wasn’t the only thing that burned in 2008, so did retail. We put so much energy in our cell phones now we barely even need things.

So, so true. It's crazy how phones even run retail. We don't have the time, energy or enthusiasm to acrually go to a shop and buy something. Everything is order-able online. Sure, there's a convenience attached to it but I like going to the store and picking a nice scarf out. Or going to the local market to buy my weekly groceries.

I’m old school that way too! I also think our plans/apps are so expensive we just wear the same clothes more.

I feel like out of principle, we could help people keep their jobs as clerks etc. I was telling the cashier at the drug store the self-checkout is bad for jobs and she argued that wasn’t the case. That self-checkout customers constantly need help from a clerk. I don’t buy it one second, I think she was told to say that.

Yes! I agree. The only apps I use are for ride-sharing. I like doing the things that are part of my daily routine.

Oh the self check counter at the supermarket definitely needs no help. It's definitely true that a lot of the jobs will be taken over by technology soon. Like building watchmen. It's common for us here in India to have watchmen for the apartments. His job is mostly to ensure that no unknown people enter the house and to approve delivery, etc. Most of the watchmen are old men who need a job. I see this slowly becoming less of a necessity with state of the art security systems.

We all have childhood memories in malls, Ali Baba's caves for our child's eyes (not the Chinese website but one with the Forty Thieves).

Haha, I didn't even know there was a chinese website with the name, but gotta admit that's clever.

Spencer's is definitely like the Caves in Forty Thieves even today. I always find some treasures there.

Spencer plaza was always on my list of places to go when in Chennai. I am sorry it is being neglected.

It's still on my list! Well, some of the shops are still there and it's always a pleasure to find some nice jewellery there.

Fantastic picture of the original plaza. Suggests the grand style of the Raj. It's incongruous, in the last picture, the way the current proprietors try retain some of the former grandeur but surround it with glass and concrete. India, holding onto its traditions, but moving rapidly into the future.

I've read so much about India--wish I could visit but know I never will. Thanks for this insight into the present and the past.

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