oh this is lovely and sad in equal measure. that dead planter in the corner is doing all the emotional heavy lifting honestly. i'd have wanted to sneak a cutting in my bag just so something was still alive up there haha. does anyone still water anything in there or is it fully left to its own devices?

long time lurker, first time posting because this one got me. my local centre lost the food court about ten years ago and the echo up that upper walkway was the exact same as yours describe - you could hear someone's shoes from the other end. used to kill saturday evenings up there with nowhere better to be. thanks for the photo bucket, proper time capsule.

...we had one of these near the harbour flats, tiles like that, and the echo off them could strip the paint off a bulkhead... used to walk through it before a night crossing when it was shut up and the cleaners were the only ones about. now it's all glass and flashing signs and nobody looks up... proper shame that. thanks for the photo bucket, brought the whole thing back...

dead mall > live mall. case closed. you get the echo, the shutters, the whole aesthetic. busy malls have muzak and queues. this is an upgrade not a downgrade.

first post after years of reading this board. that upper walkway could be the one i grew up with, right down to the plant that gave up years ago. i used to sit on the bench by the shuttered unit with a magazine i had no intention of buying. thanks for putting it up bucket, some of us needed the nudge.

oh the echo! you can practically hear it through the photo. i'd still be tempted with the planter though - even dead, that shape is doing something. ginger would sit in that pot within a minute of us getting up there, i guarantee it, he's claimed worse.

walkwayghost welcome!! proper first post that, you did it justice. fern ginger would claim the whole planter and defend it like a land deed haha. i did actually buy a cone waffle from that food court before it shut, same visit, came home with crumbs in my pocket for a week. the echo is the bit that gets me, you're right mallrat_2003, you could hear a shoe from the far end and it never changed no matter how empty it got!

> dead mall > live mall. case closed.
the case was never open dex, and "upgrade" is a strange word for a thing that got quieter. still, the photo does hold. i'd log that planter separately though - rotation field, obviously, in case it ever decides to move.

first post from a long-time reader of other threads. that dead planter shape is so specific to that era of mall landscaping, they all ordered from the same catalogue i swear. ours had fake ivy draped over one near the shutters and someone stole the ivy but left the pot. still empty twenty years on.

our food court shut but the extractor fan still runs behind the shutter, hums at a pitch that gets in your teeth. used to take my break down there when i was kitchen portering. dont miss the job, miss the hum

> the case was never open dex, and "upgrade" is a strange word for a thing that got quieter.
wren's still arguing a closed case, classic. my +3 next to bucket's +12 just means the lurkers are sentimental, doesn't change the ruling. dead mall > live mall, still closed.

tern kitchen porter down there explains the hum perfectly! you dont forget a sound like that, it gets filed away with everything else. and tiled_concourse the stolen ivy and left pot is the funniest sad thing ive read all week, someone wanted the green not the pot hahaha. this thread is proper class, thanks everyone for coming out of the lurk!

...that hum tern mentions, you get the same thing off a ship's ventilation when she's running light, sits in your teeth for hours after... used to walk through that mall near the flats before a night crossing, shut up and dark but for the cleaners' trolleys, and the echo would follow you the whole length of the walkway like it was keeping pace... never did work out why they pulled it all down for glass and flashing signs... a hum you remember is worth more than a sign you don't...

went back last spring walkwayghost? brave. i drove past my old food court last week and didnt even slow down. still think about the hum though. filed away with everything else like bucket says

> a hum you remember is worth more than a sign you don't

oldsalt quietly dropping poetry in the middle of a dead mall thread. fine, i'll allow it. but it doesn't reopen anything: dead mall beats live mall, echo and hum included. i photograph the empty aisles at work before 8am for exactly this reason - quiet is the upgrade. case closed, again.

wren you watered an arcade planter on principle!! thats the most this board thing ive ever heard and i mean that as a compliment. i keep a tin of old keys from a previous tenant on my shelf for roughly the same reasoning, one of them might be from a camera shop at that very mall. who knows where any of it ends up

> one of them might be from a camera shop at that very mall

bucket, a key you can't place is just a rotation field waiting for its first entry. i'd tag it "unknown origin, upper walkway adjacent" and let it sit. the tin stays on the shelf though, obviously, same as my grandfather's ring - fifteen brass keys, none of which fit anything i've tried, but they're catalogued.

mallrat_2003 sitting in the car park like a weirdo is completely legitimate, i did the same thing with a car park in town last spring haha. and wren the tin stays out where i can see it, if one of those keys ever opens something at that mall i'll post the photo immediately!! proper detective work this thread turned into, love it

> went back last spring walkwayghost? brave.

tern i did, sat in the car park like mallrat_2003 apparently does too, haha. went in eventually. the magazine bench is gone but the echo's the same as bucket says, followed me out to the doors like oldsalt's ship ventilation. didn't slow down on the drive home after though. filed away with everything else