The Mall Maidstone (originally known as The Stoneborough Centre, subsequently Chequers Shopping Centre and then The Mall Chequers) is a covered

shopping centre A shopping center (American English) or shopping centre (Commonwealth English), also called a shopping complex, shopping arcade, shopping plaza or galleria, is a group of shops built together, sometimes under one roof. The first known collec ...

Maidstone Maidstone is the largest Town status in the United Kingdom, town in Kent, England, of which it is the county town. Maidstone is historically important and lies 32 miles (51 km) east-south-east of London. The River Medway runs through the c ...

, the county town of

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

. The centre has of floor space, ranking it as the joint 60th largest shopping centre in the UK according to a 2008 survey by

Retail Week Retail Week is a London-based news website, data service, events producer and magazine covering the retail industry, primarily in the United Kingdom. History and profile Founded in 1988 by financial journalist Patience Wheatcroft and her husban ...

. Together with the Fremlin Walk shopping centre, which is uncovered, it is one of the two primary shopping venues within the town centre.

History

The Mall Maidstone was built in 1976 as the 'Stoneborough Centre,' with a 7-storey office block on the top, named 'Stoneborough House.' In the 1990s, the shopping centre was

rebranded Rebranding is a marketing strategy in which a new name, term, symbol, design, concept or combination thereof is created for an established brand with the intention of developing a new, differentiated identity in the minds of consumers, investors ...

as 'Chequers Shopping Centre,' to coincide with works on the main entrances and refurbishment work that was going on at the time. The office block above retained its original name. The centre opened with a Sainsbury's supermarket, which closed and relocated to a separate building immediately east of the bus station in 2000. In 2005, the centre was purchased by

The Mall Fund The Mall Fund owns and operates shopping centres in England using the trading name "The Mall Company". The shopping centres are usually branded and marketed as "the mall". The Mall Fund owned up to 10% of the covered retail space in the United Ki ...

, who once again set about refurbishing the centre with their own, distinctive pink corporate branding. An agreement was subsequently signed that

Maidstone Borough Council Maidstone is the largest town in Kent, England, of which it is the county town. Maidstone is historically important and lies 32 miles (51 km) east-south-east of London. The River Medway runs through the centre of the town, linking it with ...

would move into the office block on top of the centre, after extensive refurbishment of that, and the construction of a 'Gateway' reception area. The council signed a 99-year lease and took up residence in May 2007, with the block renamed 'Maidstone House'. Today, The Mall Maidstone hosts a wide variety of shops, from independent retailers to big chain names like

Sports Direct Frasers Group plc (formerly known as Sports Direct International plc) is a British retail, sport and intellectual property group, named after its ownership of the department store chain House of Fraser. The company is best known for trading pre ...

. It is a key part of the town centre, also containing the Chequers Bus Station, retaining the old name, which serves as the main bus terminus for the town. In December 2012 the Arriva Travel Shop closed after trading for many years in the centre. In June 2013 the Beales Outlet store shut after only a year in the centre. it was in the largest store in The Mall.

Chequers Bus Station

The town's main bus station is housed within the building, between the main shopping area and the

Sainsbury's J Sainsbury plc, trading as Sainsbury's, is the second largest chain of supermarkets in the United Kingdom, with a 14.6% share of UK supermarket sales. Founded in 1869 by John James Sainsbury with a shop in Drury Lane, London, the company wa ...

supermarket. The station takes the form of a two-way "tunnel" underneath the car park levels. Stops H1 to H5 are on the west side, and stops J1 to J6 are on the east side. There was also an

Arriva Arriva plc is a British multinational public transport company headquartered in Sunderland, England. The main operators are

Arriva Southern Counties Arriva Southern CountiesCompanies House extract company no 20314 ...

and Nu-Venture. Buses run from the bus station to several destinations in the Maidstone area such as

Barming Barming is a civil parish in the Maidstone District of Kent, England. It lies to the west of Maidstone and at the 2011 census had a population of 2,690. The eastern end of the parish is part of the built-up area of Maidstone, although the remaind ...

and Park Wood, Buses also travel to destinations outside the local area such as the

Medway Towns Medway is a unitary authority district and conurbation in Kent, South East England. It had a population of 278,016 in 2019. The unitary authority was formed in 1998 when Rochester-upon-Medway amalgamated with the Borough of Gillingham to for ...

and

Sittingbourne Sittingbourne is an industrial town in Kent, south-east England, from Canterbury and from London, beside the Roman Watling Street, an ancient British trackway used by the Romans and the Anglo-Saxons and next to the Swale, a strip of sea separa ...

. The bus station is managed by

References

External links

Official site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mall Maidstone Shopping centres in Kent Shopping malls established in 1976 Bus stations in England The Mall