St George's Shopping Centre, formerly ''The Mall Preston'' and ''The Mall St George'', is a

shopping centre A shopping center in American English, shopping centre in English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English (see American and British English spelling differences#-re, -er, spelling differences), shopping complex, shopping arcade, ...

in the city of

Preston, Lancashire Preston () is a city on the north bank of the River Ribble in Lancashire, England. The city is the administrative centre of the county of Lancashire and the wider City of Preston, Lancashire, City of Preston local government district. Preston ...

, England.

History

The shopping centre opened in November 1964, as ''St George's Shopping Centre''. It was originally an open air centre, and was roofed over during refurbishment in 1981. It was further refurbished in 1999. In May 2004, when The Mall Fund took over the centre, they were greeted with an ageing shopping centre. The shopping centre was rebranded as ''The Mall'', and a massive development scheme was planned. Small stalls, main shops, cafes, restaurants, toilets, and escalators were overhauled. The introduction of television screens in the shopping centre has given information and news to the shoppers in the centre. The Mall Company also put 'Ask Me' points in the centre, so that shoppers could ask members of staff directions and other information. In March 2010, the shopping centre was acquired by Aviva Investors for and subsequently, in September 2010, The Mall was rebranded under its original name ''St George's Shopping Centre''. The centre was again sold in 2015. This time for to IRAF UK Dragon. In 2016, the Fishergate entrance to the shopping centre was refurbished, as well as the corridors leading from the Fishergate and Lune Street entrances to the central rotunda. In 2019, the Lune Street entrance and corridor were closed due to most of the shop units being vacant. Despite the corridor only being refurbished 3 years earlier, it was removed and a

Matalan Matalan Retail Ltd is a British clothing and homewares retailer based in Knowsley, Merseyside, founded by John Hargreaves in 1985. In August 1988, its operations director at the time, Duncan Sullivan, transformed Matalan into an out-of-town wa ...

store now takes its place. IRAF UK Dragon went into

administration Administration may refer to: Management of organizations * Management, the act of directing people towards accomplishing a goal: the process of dealing with or controlling things or people. ** Administrative assistant, traditionally known as a se ...

in 2021 and the centre was sold to the Adhan Group.

Centre information

The centre is arranged around a large circular glass roofed rotunda in the centre, which was originally known as "The Bullring", when it was open air, and where there is now a

Costa Coffee Costa Limited, trading as Costa Coffee, is a coffeehouse chain with headquarters in Loudwater, Buckinghamshire, England, that operates in the United Kingdom and 37 other countries. Costa Coffee was founded in London in 1971 by Sergio Costa (co ...

, Radiating from the rotunda are large halls and promenades, lined with shops and stalls. Glass roofs and walls are also evident in the centre. A two-floor hall leads to Friargate, with another hall leading to Fishergate on the upper floor. A third route on the lower floor to Lune Street was closed in 2019. The rotunda also has a third floor with offices and access to the centre's car park.

Transport links

St George's is located between the city's two main shopping streets of Fishergate and Friargate, and runs its own

multi-storey car park A multistorey car park (Commonwealth English) or parking garage (American English), also called a multistorey, parking building, parking structure, parkade (Canadian), parking ramp, parking deck, or indoor parking, is a building designed fo ...

above the centre, which vehicles access from Lune Street. There is a Preston Park & Ride bus stop outside the centre's Lune Street entrance, and Fishergate is served by several bus routes. The centre is within half a mile of

Preston railway station Preston railway station, in Preston, Lancashire, Preston, Lancashire, England, is an interchange on the West Coast Main Line; it is approximately half-way between Euston railway station, London Euston and Glasgow Central station, Glasgow Centra ...

and Preston bus station.

References

External links

St George's Shopping website
{{Shopping centres in Northwest England Shopping centres in Lancashire Buildings and structures in Preston