Town Centre and Shopping
Livingston town centre sits on the southern edge of the Almond Valley. It is bounded by a ring road and has been purposely planned, distinguishing it from West Lothian's other town centres. Howden Park is located immediately north of the town centre.
Livingston is the sub-regional centre serving West Lothian. It features one of the largest indoor shopping and leisure complexes in Scotland, The Centre (formerly Almondvale Shopping Centre) and the Livingston Designer Outlet (formerly McArthurGlen Designer Outlet Centre).
The Centre was completed in its current guise on 16 October 2008. The total development has around 155 shops and eating establishments. The Centre has a winter garden, an outdoor restaurant area, and several famous shopping names. Major shops include Asda Wal-mart Supercentre, Next, Topshop, M&S, River Island, Debenhams and Primark plus more..
The designer outlet mall contains a VUE multiplex cinema, bars, restaurants and cafes as well as around 100 outlet stores.
Livingston town centre has an abundance of car parking. The south western edge of the town centre is dominated by retail parks. These contain a number of well known retailers such as Toys 'R' Us, PC World & Currys as well as fast food outlets like KFC and Frankie & Benny's.
There is also a large B&Q in the south-west of the town centre as well as a large Morrisons supermarket. The Homebase store closed in July 2010 and Argos moved across the road. The former Homebase and Argos stores were converted into a large Sainsburys supermarket that opened in December 2010. Also in the town centre are food stores such as Aldi and Lidl which is located beside the Almondvale Stadium.
Livingston's town centre also contains a large number of offices. Private sector offices are also concentrated at the eastern and western edges of the centre and along the Almondvale Boulevard. Other facilities in the centre include hotels, a swimming pool and local authority gym, restaurants, pubs and Club Earth. Almondvale Football Stadium and West Lothian College are located at the north western edge of the town centre..
The Livingston Civic Centre was completed in June 2009 and officially opened by First Minister Alex Salmond on 25 November 2009. The Civic Centre is located just north of the The Centre on the bank of the river Almond. It is home to the divisional headquarters of Lothian and Borders Police, as well as the sheriff and justice of the peace, West Lothian Council, the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, the Scottish Children's Reporter Administration, Lothian and Borders Fire and Rescue Service and the West Lothian Community Health and Care Partnership. The Livingston Civic Centre was completed on time and on budget. It is thought to be the first public sector partnership of its kind in the UK..
Neighbourhood Shopping Centres are located at strategic points around the town. The first of these to be built was The Mall at Craigshill. This was followed by the Carmondean Centre in Deans and groupings of shops in Ladywell and Murieston..
Read more about this topic: Livingston, West Lothian
Famous quotes containing the words town, centre and/or shopping:
“All of childhood’s unanswered questions must finally be passed back to the town and answered there. Heroes and bogey men, values and dislikes, are first encountered and labeled in that early environment. In later years they change faces, places and maybe races, tactics, intensities and goals, but beneath those penetrable masks they wear forever the stocking-capped faces of childhood.”
—Maya Angelou (b. 1928)
“In the centre of his cage
The pacing animal
Surveys the jungle cove
And slicks his slithering wiles
To turn the venereal awl
In the livid wound of love.”
—Allen Tate (1899–1979)
“The new shopping malls make possible the synthesis of all consumer activities, not least of which are shopping, flirting with objects, idle wandering, and all the permutations of these.”
—Jean Baudrillard (b. 1929)