What is it that people love about shopping in Melbourne? Ask anyone, and they’ll site a long list of cool back-alley boutiques, quirky niche stores, or perhaps the high-end Collins Street retailers that bring luxury products to a heritage locale. The likes of QV and Melbourne Central are never going to spring to any cultured shoppers mind. And why would they? They’re many things – but they’re not in the least bit remarkable.
With the imminent demolition of Londsale House in favour of a widened laneway and lacklustre shopping development, many people are thinking more deeply about the future of Melbourne as a city, and as a shopping destination. We know this from the intense amount of interest in the Lonsdale House case – much of it centered around the loss of the building itself, but much of it also in opposition to what The Age calls a slice of retail sameness.
It is, more than anything, the variety of architecture styles, the varied cafes, shops and other businesses that all go towards making shopping an experience. Shopping centres on the other hand are about getting you in, getting your money, and sending you out. They package everything into uninspired areas of relevance, best epitomised by their food courts. And they constantly look to over expand. Does anyone think Best and Less should be at Chadstone, given Chadstone are desperately trying to lock down a retail space for the likes of Tiffany’s? If you’re after Tiffany’s head to Collins Street, if you’re after Best and Less then you’re not after a shopping experience.
Personally, I don’t want to see Melbourne’s unique streetscapes, laneways, and boutique shopping areas hacked down and chipped away until there’s nothing left to distinguish it from the hulking enclosed shopping centre spaces that occupy suburbia.
If you want to know more about the Lonsdale House demolition and proposed retail development, and how you can have your say, visit http://www.savelonsdalehouse.com/.
