The Lancaster Centre in Johannesburg is now standing completely empty after its last shop—a speciality hobby store—closed down in December 2025.
The Lancaster Shopping Centre, located on Jan Smuts Avenue in Craighall, is within a 10km radius of Hyde Park, Sandhurst, and Craighall, putting it in one of the prime spots in South Africa’s richest city.
The shopping mall previously built a reputation for convenience and accessibility, serving the surrounding community.
It also previously featured anchor tenants like Pick’n Pay and Planet Fitness, along with various eateries and speciality shops.
The Lancaster Shopping Centre lost two of its anchor tenants, Pick n Pay and Planet Fitness. The latter had a high-end gym in the centre.
In March 2024, Pick ‘n Pay permanently closed its store in the centre as part of its turnaround strategy.
Pick ‘n Pay had been an anchor tenant in the shopping mall for decades, the loss of which dealt a significant blow to the property.
By 2025, only one shop was left standing: Top Deck, which specialises in collectable card games, such as Magic: The Gathering, and other gaming products.
Top Deck opened its physical store at the mall in 2019, but by December 2025, mall security confirmed it, too, had closed.
The physical and online stores for Top Deck both closed in December 2025 without a public notice. By February 2025, the group’s Facebook page had also been delisted and was no longer available.
With the closure, no stores remain in the Lancaster Centre.
Fieldspace Property Group, the owner of the four-storey shopping centre, refurbished the facility in 2022 in an attempt to revitalise its aesthetic and appeal.
However, without a major anchor tenant like the big retailers that occupied the space before, the mall struggled to maintain its draw.
Fieldspace is now exploring redevelopment opportunities for the building.
“We welcome redevelopment opportunities, joint ventures or leasing proposals from large anchor tenants interested in occupying the entire building,” it said.
The Lancaster
