Energi: the trampoline park at Queens Retail Park, Preston

The second trampoline park, and the one attached to a retail park, where the other stands alone.

Energi is a trampoline park in Preston at Queens Retail Park. It is the second of the city's two trampoline venues, the other being Flip Out.

Its position on a retail park is typical of the format: a trampoline park needs a large clear-span shed with parking, which is exactly what a retail park unit is, and that is why these venues cluster on the edge of towns, not in centres.

Energi Preston is the trampoline park at Queens Retail Park, and the retail-park setting is the point: the format needs a shed and parking at the door.

The related activity venues are Ninja Age and Wacky World, and the full category is on the activities sheet.

Queens Retail Park, and why the format is there

A retail park unit already is the building this format needs, which is why the format did not have to commission one. Clear span, a service yard, a shared car park and a lease shorter than a purpose-built shed would demand — the trampoline trade grew during a decade when those units were coming empty, and it moved into them rather than building.

Queens is one of the north-eastern retail parks, on the side of the city that also carries Deepdale and the Deepdale shopping park. That concentration is not accidental: the ground on that side was industrial and then cleared, which produced exactly the large flat sites that retail and leisure sheds need, close enough to the ring road to be reachable from the whole district.

Getting there, and who it suits

Queens is served by the buses that serve the shops, which is the one case in this category where a venue inherits a route it did not ask for. The timetable is a retail one, so a late finish still ends in a car. The compensation is that the retail park's own parking is the venue's parking, which is not true of the industrial-estate addresses in this list.

Preston's second trampoline venue is Flip Out. Both suit older children and adults, and not the youngest; for that end of the range the soft play format is the one to look at.

The free alternative: Ribbleton Park

On the same eastern side of the city, Ribbleton Park is a district recreation park — open grass, pitches and a playground, no destination and no charge. That is what a retail park venue is competing with on a dry afternoon.

The north-eastern retail parks sit on the same side of the city as Deepdale and Moor Park, which means a retail-park trip and either of those can be combined without crossing the city.