One star, by default. By default, I hear you ask? When I visited yesterday (for the first time) I discovered there's actually barely any shops in Shawlands Arcade so I couldn't award it more stars even if I wanted to. It's like those urban adventuring photos you see online of abandoned shopping centres, overgrown with plants - although I'll concede this isn't actually overgrown with plants.
I'd actually been quite intrigued by Shawlands Arcade and had even researched it online to see what shops were here. The info on their website is well out of date as I discovered that most shops are empty inside the arcade. So what is there? As at December 2014 there's Farmfoods, a picture framing store with an incredibly creepy moving mannequin out the front (not sure if he's meant to be santa or a wizard), a bargain store (notably called "The Bargain Store"), a Debra charity shop and the Kiosk. The rest of the shops lay empty and give the whole arcade an incredibly dismal, depressing vibe.
Would I return here? No, honestly not. Perhaps one day someone with a bit of a vision will take over the arcade and turn it into a delightful shopping centre with lovely local shops, with tasty treats and an interesting bookshop. For now, it's really not worth visiting.
In happier news, I believe the car park is quite cheap, especially now parking prices on Kilmarnock Road have gone up.
Update: someone tweeted me to mention there is an Art Village in one of the shops, but it's closed on a Monday so look like I'll have to go back to check that out. read more