The Houndshill Centre opened in August 1980 and underwent an extension and refurbishment programme to open in its current form complete with a Debenhams department store, in September 2008.

The Houndshill Centre contains national names including Superdrug, Next, New Look, H&M, Clarks and Primark, along with take away and cafe food outlets.

The surrounding town centre streets of Blackpool are quite compact, offering a good shopping experience that delivers independent shops and national chains side by side, including both Marks and Spencers and BHS along with the huge four floor Primark store and many other high street names.

2011 saw the return of the first town centre supermarket when the Co-Op opened, and work is well underway for the new flagship Sainsbury’s supermarket – the anchor store of the Talbot Road Gateway or Central Business District redevelopment, which will include office accommodation, car parking and leisure facilities.

There are a number of handy town centre car parks, including multi-storeys at Wilkinsons, BHS, and in the Houndshill Centre, along with surface car parks which include the huge Central Car Park behind central promenade.

Read more about shopping in Blackpool Town Centre

Blackpool actually covers quite a large area and there are a number of other places where you’ll find shops, offices and businesses, from little groups of local shops to serve a small area of local residents, to the out-of-town type of centres with supermarkets and large stores that draw people from Blackpool and beyond.

For example, there’s Whitegate Drive – one of the main routes through Blackpool, where you’ll find the fabulous new Medical Centre, but also shops of all kinds including food stores, furniture, clothes, florists, and just about anything else that you can imagine. There is on-street parking on Whitegate Drive and the side streets, which is also handy for things like solicitors and the accountants offices that you’ll also find there. Devonshire Road is another similar main route, with similar groups of shops along its stretch.

At the southern end of Blackpool are a couple of main trading estates. At Marton you’ll find an area of out-of-town stores around the Asda supermarket. At the main approach to Blackpool from the M55 is the huge Tesco with its Next, Matalan and Clarks neighbours.

Turn left at the end of the M55 and you’ll head to Squires Gate where you’ll find Morrisons and another group of superstores including Pets at Home and Currys/PC World.

If you're looking for things for your home, then Mowbray Drive would be a good place to start. This is where you'll find decorating shops, hardware and homewares, builders supplies, tiles and bathroom supplies and all the things you need to make a house a home.

These are the most notable ones but there are local shops all over the Blackpool area, which provide employment, products and services for the people who live in their neighbourhoods, plus of course a sense of community.

Then there are the smaller town centres like Bispham, which of course is still in Blackpool, plus Anchorsholme which is almost in Cleveleys, and then there are shops at Layton, Marton and more besides.

Blackpool Town Centre

Co-op in Blackpool Town Centre