Preston's St George's Centre gears up for reopening of non-essential retail

The shopping centre, off Fishergate, has remained open throughout the pandemic to allow its essential retailers to continue trading.

But from April 12, all other non-essential shops in the centre will open their doors once more, for the first time since the full January lockdown was announced.

In the next step of Boris Johnson's roadmap out of lockdown, non-essential stores will be able to welcome in customers once more, along with the opening of outdoor dining, hairdressers, nail salons, leisure centres and domestic self-catering holidays.

The Preston shopping centre and its retailers such as H&M, Matalan, and Pandora will be open for shoppers once again to provide the real-life shopping experience that has been missed by many.

Andrew Stringer, St George’s Manager, commented: “We are delighted to be welcoming our visitors and non-essential retailers back to the Centre next week.

"Our Centre and retailer teams have been working extremely hard under huge pressure this past year, and we want to extend a huge thank you to the key workers both within the centre and across Preston who have done an excellent job in looking after our City.

"We have seen the community come together like never before, and although our Centre teams are working hard to keep everyone safe, it is crucial that we continue to work together and follow the current guidelines so that we can all look forward to getting back to some normality.”

For the safety of shoppers, current measures which include compulsory face masks unless exempt, hand sanitising stations and directional floor markings will remain in place.

The plan was fully communicated to St George’s retailers with support readily available to help them reopen safely and in line with Government guidelines.

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