The Centre

The Centre is the name of a shopping centre in Livingston, Scotland. Formerly known as 'Livingston Regional Centre' before becoming the more widely recognised 'Almondvale Shopping Centre'. It is (as of 2019) the 28th largest shopping centre in the UK. Origins The original centre was built in the 1970s by the now defunct Livingston Development Corporation or LDC and was home to smaller independent retailers such as Virgo a fashion store and Coda music up to the larger well known brand names such as WoolCo (which became the now defunct Woolworths) and FineFare (the equally defunct Gateway). The shopping centre was very dark and gave the appearances of an outside mall except it was roofed. Through time modernizations were made to make it more appealing to shoppers and more upmarket, bringing in more up to date floor tiling, bright lighting and the centres' branding and logos on the walls. Phase Two It was decided that a second phase would be built onto the existing frontage of the centre and would incorporate a purpose-built supermarket and feature two twin towers one on the front entrance elevation and the other on the side entrance where the new supermarket would be. Phase two opened in 1995 and had bigger well known names such as Iceland, Vodafone and Boots to name but a few.