spencers plaza - a trip back in memory lane

Spencers plaza the past

Spencers plaza is one the largest shopping malls in south asia. Situated in the heart of chennai, this shopping malls has a collection of top foreign brands as well as indian brands. With centralized A/C this place used to be the most important hang-out spots in chennai.
It is (was) one stop shopping mall in chennai where People from all classes (rich, middle and poor) can buy something and everything. With Satyam cinemas close by, most people would follow up a movie in satyam cinemas with a visit to Spencers..

Spencers was a hanging spot for me right from high-school days. If we decided to hang out, the first place that comes to our mind was spencers plaza. It had a little for everyone.
When it comes to food, It was an one stop place where we can taste variety of cuisine.Right from the pani-puri shop located at the entrance of the food court, to pizza corner that used to follow that and the cookie man; spencers would be able to feed people from all walks of life.

We had the historic Landmark book shop. It was a one stop place for latest books, music cds,kids-toys, movie cds etc...
In Spencers we also used to get a variety of gadgets ranging from Chinese gadgets like music stereos to FM players to the latest sony cameras and latest leather footwear..

After a little bit of google search I found out that Spencers plaza has its own history..read this, an article in hindu newspaper about the history of spencers. Spencers plaza was Chennai's first departmental store in 1895. In 1984, a fire broke out and it was reconstructed subsequently as spencers plaza.

Spencers plaza the present

Today I visited spencers with many of my old friends. I was totally shocked to find spencers plaza empty. All the shops from third floor have been removed! ya, the place that had food court is gone!
The whole of the third floor has been converted to a parkng space! There is no landmark, no cookie shop too...:( The new food court opened in the third phase, second floor has only a handful of eateries! With hardly 10 people in the food court, the whole place looked deserted!


I am really saddened to see the current state of affairs in spencers;, that too in a city like chennai, where people give lot of importance to historic things. Spencers had long been the heartbeat in chennai and now it is reduced to nothing more then a museum. I hope spencers plaza fights through this period of uncertainty and reclaims its position of the best shopping plaza in chennai!!