The easiest way to understand Carlingwood Shopping Centre is to sit on one of its benches for a few minutes and watch the world pass by.
Seniors gather outside Second Cup and Tim Hortons to catch up with friends they’ve known for decades. Walkers are parked nearby as conversations drift from grandchildren’s hockey games and upcoming weddings to the latest doctor’s appointments. Para Transpo buses are never far away.
In the food court, high school students crowd around tables during their lunch break, burgers and fries in hand. Next door, shoppers weave through the aisles of Loblaws picking up groceries for the week. At the front of the mall, the unmistakable scent of fresh popcorn drifts from Kernels.
There is something comforting about Carlingwood.
While many shopping centres have been renovated beyond recognition, Carlingwood has held onto much of the character that made it a fixture of Ottawa’s west end. Rows of indoor plants still separate cushioned benches. Warm wood tones and earthy colours remain beneath the skylights. Even the hallways are still carpeted — making it the last shopping mall in Ottawa where shoppers aren’t walking entirely on tile.
At a time when many malls are being demolished or redeveloped, with only memories left behind, Carlingwood is celebrating its 70th anniversary. When it opened in 1956, it was billed as the largest shopping centre in Eastern Canada and hailed in newspaper advertisements as a “shopper’s dream.”
Seventy years later, the stores may have changed, but the role Carlingwood plays in the community remains remarkably familiar.
The humble beginnings
When talk of a shopping centre on Carling Avenue began to swirl, the land that was once part of the McKellar estate was still surrounded by farmland. But shoppers’ retail habits were changing, and Billings Bridge and Westgate shopping centres were already booming.
Carlingwood’s story began when Simpsons — which later became Sears — opened a two-storey, 160,400-square-foot retail store on the property. Around the same time, Loblaws opened a 30,000-square-foot grocery store, which, according to The Ottawa Journal, “incorporates such features as major carpet exits, visual meat wrapping room, snack bar and Tea Wagon Bakery.” Outside, there was room for 3,000 cars.
“The new supermarket has 22 check-off counters equipped with speedy, smooth-operating converter belts,” reported The Ottawa Journal on Dec. 7, 1955. “Ottawa housewives will enjoy shopping in the meat department which is managed by the well-known butcher, Normal Lamke.”
Over the next year, a L-shaped, 40-store shopping centre was constructed between the two anchor tenants.
Advertisements from the era reveal just how ambitious the project was. Early tenants included Reitmans, Woolworth’s, Fairweather, Kiddytown, Zellers and dozens of local businesses. By Christmas 1957, Carlingwood was advertising a three-day shopping celebration featuring 32 stores and more than 3,500 parking spaces.
The centre quickly became more than a retail destination.
A 1956 newspaper feature promoting the new Carlingwood Restaurant described it as Ottawa’s “most modern restaurant.” Banquet rooms, dining facilities and social events turned the shopping centre into a gathering place long before food courts became common.
As the west end grew, so did Carlingwood. In 1971, it underwent its next major transformation.
At a press conference on Feb. 16, 1971, it was announced that the Simpsons-Sears store would see the addition of a third floor and that the mall itself would be enclosed to protect shoppers from the elements.
Unlike today, when large-scale projects can take years to complete, mall owners set Sept. 1 of that year as the target opening date. The “climate-controlled” expansion included seven new boutiques.
Over three days in October, a celebration was held. Special guests included the Miss Rough Riders, Ken “The General” Grant — a well-known radio personality at the time — Diamond Lil, the Barber Shop Quartet, clowns, musicians and free balloons.
The last major renovation to the mall occurred in the mid-2000s. In a 2006 interview with the Ottawa Business Journal, then-Carlingwood manager Denis Pelletier credited it, along with the arrival of a new bargain retailer, for a successful Christmas shopping season.
“Our size is attractive to many consumers because we’re not a large regional shopping mall, so our parking is more convenient and on one level and you can get a lot done in a short period of time,” Pelletier said at the time. “We were impacted a few years ago by all of the new retail opening up in Barrhaven, but the newness has faded and I think we’re on a competitive level now. We have a very loyal customer base.”
In January 2018, the mall was dealt a major blow when it was announced that its longest-serving store, Sears, would be closing following the company’s bankruptcy. The large retail space sat vacant for several years before Canadian Tire tore it down and built what was then its largest store in Canada.
Today, enclosed malls like Carlingwood are becoming increasingly rare. In 2019, Lincoln Fields, which was also located on Carling Avenue, was torn down to make way for a major residential development. But with the rental market slowing, property developer RioCan is now reconsidering its plans, according to Bay Ward Coun. Theresa Kavanagh.
On the other side of Carling Avenue, Ottawa’s oldest mall, Westgate, closed last fall, with demolition crews bulldozing the structure earlier this year. Original plans called for multiple rental towers, but after several revisions, the site is now expected to include a new grocery store, with residential development to come later.
It’s unlikely Carlingwood will face a similar fate anytime soon. Despite the front parking lot being rezoned to allow for residential development, Kavanagh said the mall’s owners are not considering any drastic changes.
Long-term leases with Canadian Tire and Loblaws prohibit large-scale developments from blocking their entrances. Meanwhile, the mall’s north-side parking structure was recently demolished after it became too costly to repair and is being replaced with a surface parking lot expected to open later this year.