WELCOME TO
THE SHOPS
A NEWLY RENOVATED 1980’s SHOPPING MALL IN DOWNTOWN STRATHROY!
51 Front St E, Strathroy ON N7G 1Y5
History of the Property
The mall is located at 51 Front St E, in the downtown core of Strathroy. However, if you were to travel back in time, you would see that the entire property located along Front St E (between Caradoc St and Head St) looked a lot different back in the day.
In the 1830’s, the Strathroy Flour Mill would’ve been found on the far side of the property, where the mall is located. This image of the flour mill, was photographed back in 1832!
Commercial Development
Fast forward to the 1930’s, the property in which the Strathroy Flour Mill sat on, was re-developed into a commercial complex. The new A&P grocery store, now known as Food Basics, was built in the Kenwick Plaza and opened up in 1932. Almost thirty years later, construction began on the new shopping centre Kenwick Mall, which eventually came to completion and opened up in the 1980’s. Since the 80’s this downtown shopping centre, has had many changes which included the expansion of the grocery store and the shopping mall itself.
The end of an Era…
While the downtown shopping mall may always be known as the Kenwick Mall to some residents, sometimes change can be good, which is exactly what happened a few years ago. In June of 2021 the local family owned company, Front Street Revival, decided to change things up and rebrand and renovate the shopping mall. The rebranding kicked off with the request of the local communities help to re-name the mall, which shortly after was changed to The Shops on Sydenham! With renovations to both the exterior and interior already underway, the shopping mall was re-opened in December of 2021, just in time for a Christmas Grand Opening!
The company’s future goal is to revive the Front St E commercial corridor (from Head St to Caradoc St), back to its former glory of being a social shopping hub, in addition to the current thriving downtown core of Strathroy.
