Arcade  

"From 1786 to 1935, during the "l’Ère des passages couverts" (the Arcade Era), arcades soon spread across Europe, North America and the Antipodes. Examples of these grand shopping arcades include: Palais Royal in Paris (opened in 1784); Passage de Feydeau in Paris (opened in 1791); London's Piccadilly Arcade (1810) and Milan's Galleria Vittorio Emanuele (1878). Other notable nineteenth century grand arcades include the Galeries Royales Saint-Hubert in Brussels which was inaugurated in 1847 and Istanbul's Çiçek Pasajı opened in 1870. Shopping arcades were the precursor to the modern shopping mall, and the word "arcade" is now often used for malls which do not use the architectural form at all. These arcades were the subject of Walter Benjamin's incomplete magnum-opus Arcades Project."--Sholem Stein