The complex was designed by
Richard Seifert and developed by
St Martins Property Group. Residential apartments situated above the mall were constructed in 1973, whilst the shopping centre itself was officially opened on 3 April 1979 by
Diana Dors and the then Mayor of Hammersmith. The development originally came with a 950-space car park. It also included two office buildings constructed in the mid 1970s. The five-acre site is split into two parts. The southern part, containing the main shopping centre, the original housing estate above it and one of the office buildings, is situated off King Street, to the south of the
Hammersmith & City line railway line, and located between Lyric Square to the east and Leamore Street to the west. The northern part, originally containing the car park and other office building, is located to the north of the
Hammersmith & City line railway line off Glenthorne Road, with Beadon Road to the east and Leamore Street to the west. The northern and southern parts of the complex are linked via a covered footbridge over the
District line and
Picadilly line railway lines at the first floor level of the shopping centre. The only other amenities at the first floor level are public toilets and access to the original housing estate. In 2011, the owner of Kings Mall, St Martins Property Group sold it to Matterhorn Capital for £115 million. In June 2015, Matterhorn Capital sold the shopping centre on to
Schroders for £153 million. In 2016, the car park and one of the office buildings were demolished and replaced with a smaller 753-space car park with new residential apartments situated above it. As of 2019, the centre is currently undergoing a multimillion-pound transformation. This includes removing the external staircases to the flats above outside each of the entrances to the shopping centre off King Street, and a complete internal refurbishment of the shopping arcade. In January 2020,
INGKA Centres (a division of
INGKA Holding) purchased the centre, the centre went through another major £170 million transformation with intentions of it becoming more of a place to meet rather than a shopping centre, becoming one of their Livat centres (the first Livat centre outside of China) and IKEA opening a new store which would take up a huge portion of the centre, the centre was reopened under the Livat brand on 4th February 2022 alongside the new IKEA store. ==Car park==