Why is The Oaks shopping mall so bleak? It's so unwelcoming when compared to Kings Mall in Hammersmith where they have provided lots of seating and light refreshments available. It makes a much better shopping experience.The excuse for this oversight in The Oaks is to deter vagrants using the seating. There are security officers standing about surely they would ensure the area is only available for shoppers?There are numerous elderly and disabled residents who live in Acton a and I am sure they would welcome any improvement to The Oaks which might also result in more people shopping there. A win win situation surely?
Jean F Fernandez ● 718d22 Comments
Agree there !! Even some plants would cheer it up and a tree at Christmas
Beryl Bashford ● 677d
Agreed. Developers and Mall Management aren't stupid, there'll be a reason/s why they don't tart The Oaks up.I have no idea what the reason/s may be.Perhaps they simply figure that the demographic will shop there anyway and there's simply no need to spend anything to improve its appeal?
Rosco White ● 677d
The mess that is the Oaks pre-dates the pandemic by many years ! Maybe Waitrose had a second look and saw nothing to change their mind
Sandy Stagg ● 677d
Top tip for parking near Chiswick Waitrose. Use the Sainsbury's car park which allows two hours if you are a customer. If you have a Nectar card you can be in and out of Sainsbury's in 5 minutes by using the self scan and they never check the £10 minimum spend when validating parking. Get your nice stuff from Waitrose and your staples at Sainsbury's before you go.
Mark Evans ● 678d
Surely the owners could afford a few plants to cheer the place up?It really is one of the most depressing shopping malls I have ever visited!Not a great way to attract customers!
Jean F Fernandez ● 699d
A nice coffee shop on the Churchfield Road side instead of red brick dull wall.Waitrose and Marks would have been nice.It's a real trek to West Ealing Waitrose. The one in Chiswick if difficult to park near.
Ajit Singh ● 705d
It's a very useful and worthwhile mall in my mind. It could definitely benefit from a plant or two and a bench, but for what it is, it's perfect. IMHO.
Nigel Powell ● 705d
Even if they tarted it up a bit I wouldn't be inclined to linger. If I want to stick around for a coffee and pastry there are several really nice places just by the rear entrance on Churchfield Road.
Mark Evans ● 706d
Maybe, but it's too late now.
Susan Kelly ● 707d
Neither of you think, that with a minimal amount of foresight, thought & imagination, SO much more & SO much better could have easily been achieved with The Oaks while we had the chance?
Rosco White ● 708d
Like Mark, I have no problem with the place. It's a good place to pick up groceries or homeware on my way home from the gym and I now get many of my Amazon orders sent to the locker there. I don't want to sit there.
Susan Kelly ● 708d
I'm a huge fan of the new Oaks. It is dull, characterless and functional but for me shopping isn't a leisure exercise but a chore and the availability of a range of the best discount chains makes it very useful in these difficult times. I'm hugely relieved it doesn't have a Waitrose which would have been pointless as it could never have matched the range and value of the grocery stores on the High Street.
Mark Evans ● 708d
We were conned, as usual, par for the course.And The Lemmings put 'em right back in again so expect four more years of this wonderful, forward thinking and resident friendly type of "architecture" ....... 🤣
Rosco White ● 712d
Despite the graphics of happy families shopping and dining in ultra-modern surroundings that I remember from the disgraceful planning meetings, the layout looks pretty much identical to what it was before, but actually lacking the ramshackle charm, stripped bare of any welcoming feature or stall that might make it seem a little less stark. All they did, for all the disruption and work, is stick a block of flats on top of pretty much a replica of before.
Adam Kimmel ● 712d
Simple things like large potted plants would make a huge difference.But they don't care .......
Rosco White ● 713d
I agree ..it’s the most dismal ,drab shopping mall ever …surely they could add a few chairs and maybe a nice cafe .
Tina halpin ● 713d
But then a house over the road in poets corner is a minimum 1 million and flats 450k so not quite your bargain basement demographic moving in to the neighbourhood.
Lee Harding ● 713d
Retailers of course do deep research and The Oaks locality of Acton is not suited to Waitrose, M & S, etc.You've only got to look around, there's a very obvious reason why Poundland, Wilko, Lidl, KFC, Iceland, et al dominate.
During the pandemic John Lewis closed a number of stores and the proposed Waitrose was a casualty of that time.
Gail Peters ● 714d
A very depressing place .
John Kennedy ● 714d
Hardly surprising. The new Oaks was always about building blocks of flats not a community retail hub. The dodgy developer, Acton Regeneration Company, secured planning on the basis of Julian Bell’s lies that first Waitrose, then M&S, were going to be anchor tenants. No disrespect to Lidl, but Acton residents were mugged off by that charlatan Council leader. And it looks like we’re in for 4 more years of the same.
Peter Millman ● 718d
Couldn't agree more Jean. I have copd and often have to stop even carrying a small bag of shopping,no chance of that there.
Donna Fraser ● 718d