Eighties Malls
Along Orchard Road are three atrium malls built in the eighties. Lucky Plaza is the earliest, but further south are two built in 1983 with a similar design but quite different atmospheres. When Centrepoint launched, it was an upmarket mall and today it still retains its ambitions. It has undergone extensive renovations, especially to its frontage. Inside, however, the mall is relatively unchanged. The atrium is serene and airy. The escalators are covered in a flashy gold facade and, in an interesting tweak, there is a single escalator on both sides.
This ensures that visitors are forced to walk the length of one side of the atrium to get to the escalator they want. And as they walk and window shop, who knows if they might be pulled into a store by a dress or shoe and end up with an unexpected purchase.
Nearby Cuppage Plaza is more in the style of Lucky Plaza, but being set back from the main drag, it has become more of a niche mall. For as long as I can remember, Cuppage Plaza has been the haunt of Japanese expatriates in Singapore. It is home to numerous Japanese eateries (often popular with Japanese chefs) and nightclubs and lounges aimed at the Japanese businessman. In the day, apart from eateries that conduct a busy lunch service on the first floor nearest the entrance, the rest of the mall is quiet. At night is when things pick up. The bubble lifts—yet another giveaway of its vintage as an 80s mall—are elegant and rather evocative to me. I remember riding them as a child and getting a kick of seeing the world outside shift up and down. It was a novel experience then and it still is today.
©Wendy Gan 2025
Compared to the crush of people you find in Orchard Road’s newer malls, these older buildings have a pleasing calm to them. Perhaps some might view them as failures, but I am drawn to them because they are remnants of an era I grew up in. It’s a telling sign of how ruthlessly Singapore modernises every inch of its ground that I cling to these 80s malls for a dose of nostalgia.
