The Urban Roamer

reminiscing Cubao: the Fiesta Carnival

August 15, 2016December 11, 2010 by The Urban Roamer

More than the stores and the movie theaters, if you ask anyone who experienced old Cubao as to what was their best experience of the place, the most popular answer would probably be their visit/s to that beloved placed called Fiesta Carnival.

Long before Star City and (in some way) Enchanted Kingdom, one of the ultimate, if not THE ultimate, amusement park in the metropolis was the Fiesta Carnival. Despite the name though, it was not housed on a tent like the carnivals we see in the movies. Rather it made its home under a warehouse-type structure with a variety of shops surrounding the building. Very far from the common conception indeed.

reminiscing Cubao and its old movie theaters

August 15, 2016December 4, 2010 by The Urban Roamer

When the Aranetas first got hold in 1952 of what was then a wide empty tract of land along what was then known as Highway 54, (that’s EDSA as it was called before) they envisioned the place what was soon to be known as Araneta Center as a premier entertainment hub to compliment/rival the old Downtown Manila area which by that time was already getting too crowded for comfort, so to speak. It would not be until the mid 1960’s when the entertainment scene in Cubao began to boom. As with the rise of the department stores, movie houses in and around Cubao began to mushroom. From then until the 1990’s, Cubao was one of the top places people go to for worthwhile movie entertainment, with so many movie houses one can go to, as you can see on this map below.

reminiscing Cubao: when department stores were kings

August 15, 2016November 29, 2010 by The Urban Roamer

As was mentioned in a previous entry, Cubao at its height was a premier commercial destination. For casual shoppers and enthusiasts, Cubao was one of the top destinations in mind if you’re looking for variety and great bargains to boot.

To give you a good idea of how bustling was Cubao’s shopping activity during its heyday, I would refer you to this customized Google Earth map I made. Here you can see that the department stores (who at the time were the upper echelons of the shopping hierarchy) were located right across or next to each other. You can imagine the chaos if there was a simultaneous sale that will be held by 2 or more stores there.

We’ve already talked about C.O.D.; let’s talk about the other department stores which not only served as competition but contributed to the overall atmosphere of Cubao that is now a stuff of memories. Many of them I have known and visited so I’ll try to provide a better picture based on what I remember about them.

reminiscing Cubao: C.O.D. Cubao Department Store

August 15, 2016November 20, 2010 by The Urban Roamer

This 2010 Christmas season, I thought it would be appropriate that The Urban Roamer’s Journal pay tribute to what was once one of the premier, if not THE premier, Christmas destinations in Metro Manila: the commercial business district of Cubao in Quezon City.

On a personal note, I was fortunate enough to experience memorable Christmases past in Cubao in its past glory and be dismayed by its decline over the years, but at the same time hopeful for some future memorable Christmases to be witnessed in Cubao in the midst of its bid to recapture its old glory.

Long before malls became the premier shopping destination, it was the department stores who were considered the apex for the shopper. Back then, competition among department stores was thriving, cutthroat as some might consider. No other example of that competition was witnessed in those days than in the commercial district of Cubao in Quezon City.

Even as the advent of malls in the area with Ali Mall and Farmers Plaza by the 1980’s, the department stores at the time were still kings. But for many shoppers like my family, one department store stood out among the rest: the C.O.D. Department Store.