The reopening ceremony for the Central Children’s Store (Detsky Mir) in Moscow’s Lubyanka Square was held on March 31, after six years of renovations. The ceremony was attended by Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin.
“Today is a remarkable occasion — the reopening of Detsky Mir,” Mayor Sobyanin said. “While it has a different name now, I don’t think the formal name is important, but rather the fact that it is happening. It is the largest children’s store in Moscow and in Russia and one of the largest in the world. But even this is not the most important thing. What’s most important is that this unique building has been preserved as much as possible. Everything that could be restored has been restored. It took an enormous amount of work.”
One of the largest children’s department stores in Europe, it occupies an entire block between Lubyanka Square, Teatralny Proyezd, and Rozhdestvenka and Pushechnaya Streets. The shopping mall, designed by architect Alexei Dushkin and built between 1953 and 1957, is part of the cultural heritage of Moscow and its environs.
In 2008, the Detsky Mir building was closed for renovations, as it was in critical condition. The project took longer than expected for lack of design proposals that took into account its unique status as an architectural monument, according to Mayor Sobyanin.
Among the restored elements are the ceramic tile, the granite plinth, the 26 arched windows on the facade and the balcony looking out on Lubyanka, which was destroyed in the 1980s.
The central atrium has remained in place, with over 100 balusters from 1957 restored in its fence. Its inner dome is now adorned with a thousand-square-metre stained glass ceiling decorated with paintings by 20th century Russian fairy-tale illustrator Ivan Bilibin. The smaller dome is decorated with stained glass windows featuring paintings by Aristarkh Lentulov. Eight unique bronze floor lamps have also been renovated.
In addition, the building now has 24 escalators and 22 lifts, including ones for people with limited mobility. There are baby care rooms available on each floor. The entrances to the store from the Lubyanka metro station have been restored, and an additional entrance from Rozhdestvenka Street has been built.
The department store has 250 shops with a full range of children’s products and services.
Now that the renovations are complete, the Central Children’s Store in Lubyanka is expected to become a major shopping mall and yet another popular holiday destination in Moscow for families with children.
The new layout is based on the concept of learning through playing, and features several interactive areas with special programmes. There is a library, a playground, a space centre and a movie theatre. There are also two permanent 3D-mapping shows, Russia’s History and Pride of Russia.
On the sixth floor, there is the Museum of Childhood, which displays vintage toys and baby products and provides information on the Soviet retail system for children’s goods. The museum collection includes about a thousand exhibits. Visitors are encouraged to donate toys once purchased in Detsky Mir to the museum.
Russkiy Mir Foundation Information Service
