St John's Shopping Centre: the open-air block on Lancaster Road
The centre that answers a different question from the other two, and the reason charity-shop searches land on a shopping-centre page.
St John's Shopping Centre stands on Lancaster Road, between the markets and the bus station, and it is the third of Preston's covered blocks — except that it is not covered in the way the other two are. It is a compact, ground-floor, open-air centre: a run of small units under a walkway rather than a mall with a roof over the whole floorplate.
That difference decides what trades there. The units are small and the rents are the lowest of any centre in the city, so the mix is the discount end of retail — charity shops, card and gift outlets, discount branded goods, cheap food. It is the one part of the centre where that trade is concentrated instead of scattered.
It is shortened to the St John's Centre by most people who use it, and the full name only appears on the signage.
Why it is not on Fishergate, and why that matters
St George's and the Fishergate centre open off the high street, because they were inserted into it to give the multiples the floorplates a Victorian unit cannot provide. St John's sits at the other end of the centre entirely, on the market side, and it was never competing for those tenants.
So the three read as one category on a map and as three different businesses on the ground. The shopping sheet sets out the four kinds of retail the city has; this block is the clearest case of the cheapest kind having its own address.
The market side of the centre, and the regeneration
Standing between the markets and the bus station puts St John's inside the area the city has been rebuilding for a decade, set out on the markets quarter sheet. The new market hall, the cinema scheme and the public realm around them all changed the footfall this block sits in, and a refurbishment was under way here in the late 2010s aimed at the food end of the offer.
What that means for a visitor is that this is the part of Preston's retail geography most likely to have changed since any given description of it, including this one. What does not change is where it is and what kind of centre it is.
The most perishable list in the city
A centre of small units at the discount end turns its occupants over faster than any other retail form in the city, and a named list would be the most perishable thing on this site.
Questions about St John's Shopping Centre
Where is St John's Shopping Centre in Preston?
On Lancaster Road, between the markets and the bus station, at the market end of the city centre rather than off Fishergate.
Is St John's the same as St George's?
No. St George's is a covered mall inserted behind the Fishergate frontage for larger chain units. St John's is a compact open-air, ground-floor centre on Lancaster Road with small units at the discount end of the trade.
Where are Preston's charity shops?
The city's charity and discount retail is concentrated at St John's more than anywhere else, which is why searches for charity shops in Preston lead to a shopping-centre page rather than to a street.