Shopping in Preston: the markets, Fishergate and the arcades

Four quite different kinds of shopping, and they are not in the same part of the city.

Shopping in Preston divides into four things that are easy to confuse from a distance. There is the market trade, which is the oldest and the most distinctive. There is the Fishergate high street and the shopping centres attached to it. There are the Victorian arcades and the independent streets behind them. And there are the out of centre retail parks, which are where most of the volume actually goes.

Knowing which one you want decides where to park. The first three are all inside the same twenty minute walk; the fourth is not walkable from the centre at all.

The markets

Preston Markets are the reason the town existed, and they are covered in full on their own sheet. The short version is that three things carry the name: the Market Hall, which opened in 2018 as an enclosed building with fixed units; the outdoor market under the cast iron canopy from the 1870s; and the Flag Market, which is a civic square as opposed to a trading floor for most of the year.

They sit in a chain running east from the Harris along Earl Street, and that chain is the axis of the markets quarter regeneration area.

Fishergate and the shopping centres

Fishergate is the main shopping street, running west from the Flag Market towards the railway station. It carries the multiples and the two shopping centres that open off it, and it has been remodelled to prioritise pedestrians over through traffic. It is the closest thing Preston has to a conventional high street.

Its western end is where a rail arrival meets the city, which makes it the first thing most visitors see. That matters for expectations: the high street is not the interesting part of shopping in Preston, but it is the part you arrive in.

The arcades and the independent streets

Miller Arcade is the best surviving piece of Victorian commercial architecture in the city, built in the 1890s and Grade II listed, and it is worth walking through whether or not you intend to buy anything. It stands at the Church Street end of the centre, next to the markets.

Behind and around it are the independent retail streets, which is where Preston's smaller shops have concentrated as the multiples moved to the retail parks. Winckley Street and the blocks between Fishergate and the markets carry most of it.

The retail parks

The out of centre retail is where the bulk of Preston's shopping now happens. Deepdale Shopping Park is the largest and sits north east of the centre near the football ground; Capitol Centre is south, at Walton le Dale.

Neither is walkable from the city centre, and both are designed around car access. If you are visiting Preston as opposed to living there, they are not where you want to spend the day — but if you need something specific from a large multiple, they are where it will be.

• Markets / 01

  Preston Markets

  Market Hall, the 1870s covered ground and the Flag Market.

• High street / 02

  Fishergate

  The main shopping street, running to the station.

• Victorian / 03

  Miller Arcade

  1890s Grade II listed arcade on Church Street.

• Independents / 04

  Independent retail

  The smaller shops behind the high street.

• Retail park / 05

  Deepdale Shopping Park

  The largest out-of-centre retail, to the north east.

• Retail park / 06

  Capitol Centre

  Out-of-centre retail at Walton le Dale, to the south.

• Centre / 07

  St George's Shopping Centre

  The covered block behind the Fishergate frontage.

• Centre / 08

  St John's Shopping Centre

  Open-air and ground floor on Lancaster Road, at the discount end.

Retail tenancies turn over faster than any list

No opening hours, no trading days, no prices, and no claim about which shops are currently in which unit. Retail tenancies turn over faster than any static page can follow, and a list of shops is out of date within a season. This sheet describes the places as opposed to their occupants.