Mall’s £6m birthday present
A modern children’s TV celebrity helped celebrate the past of one of Maidstone’s best-known shop shopping centres.
Mister Maker, of CBeebies fame, took to the stage at The Mall, in King Street, to mark the venue’s 40th birthday and cele celebrate a £6 million refurbishment being completed.
Youngsters designed their own M decoupage – a large M is the logo used for The Mall – and could enter a competition to win Hazlitt Theatre panto tickets.
The centre’s remodelling included the entrances and widening the Gabriels Hill entry point, strip lighting that adjusts to the weather, new toilets, white porcelain flooring and redecoration.
Shop fronts have been heightened and ceiling beams exposed.
TJ Hughes has returned after several years and The Golden Boot has expanded into the former Ship Inn adjacent to The Mall entrance.
In 1976, the venue opened as the Stoneborough Centre. It was built on the site of Len Cabinet Works and Water Lane.
Probably the most distinctive aspect was a feature hanging from the ceiling like stalactites.
It included a seven-storey office block above it, known as Stoneborough House.
The centre had its first major revamp in the 1990s, when the name was changed to the Chequers Shopping Centre.
In 2006, the centre was bought by The Mall Fund, which refurbished it.
Shortly after, in 2007, Maidstone Borough Council took over the office block on a 99-year lease and renamed it Maidstone House, with the Gateway reception area constructed on the High Street.
For a while the centre was known as The Mall Chequers, but now it is simply The Mall.