Middlebrook is actually pretty good for a retail/leisure park. It has all of the regular big shops…read moreyou'd imagine, selling sofas, carpets etc, as well as some good clothing stores and general shops, plus a large VUE cinema and several restaurants of both the fast-food and dine-in variety. There's also a bowling alley and arcade. It's also great that the plentiful parking is all free, unlike Bolton town centre, and is secured by the (slightly controversial) UKPC. If parking doesn't matter to you, it's easily accessible on foot, and bus services run through it via several bus stops, and the stop at Horwich Parkway Rail Station. It can get congested around match days and the such, as there's only really two ways in and out, and both clog up quite quickly. They also have occasional promo events and activities, such as radio stations broadcasting from there, free kids face painting and character events, petting zoos etc.

middlebrook is a superb retail park with big names such as boots, m&s, a huge asda, vue cinema, the…read morelist goes on. there is loads of free parking but becareful if bolton wanderers are at home on a staurday, it gets so busy. the location isn't ideal for everyone, as it is based in horwich which is close to wigan, sop it can be out of the way for some.

This Hurley's location is next to VUE and opposite Starbucks in Middlebrook Retail Park in the…read moreHorwich area of Bolton, alongside a branch they have in Wigan, this is one of their two remaining stores. Hurley's describes itself as a "family-owned business since 1955, and "the original sportswear shop in Manchester city centre" The store is easy to navigate with clear areas of store for women's and men's fashion, the staff seemed very friendly and helpful, and they were able to answer basic questions. They had a nice selection of designer clothing from many brands including Hugo Boss and Barbour. 4* - A nice selection of fashion if you're lucky enough to find something in your size, this is mainly an "Outlet" store now, so they might not have each item in every size and you do have to root around to find the item you are looking for on the shelving, which can involve touching most items, I understand why many retailers do this but I much prefer being able to see items without having to pick it up to take a closer look.

Hurley's is situated at Middlebrook development in Horwich, Bolton…read more There is a large Free car park and a bus service to Middlebrook. The store is near to Next and the cinema and you go inside as if you are going to the cinema to get to it. It is next door to Abacus chinese restaraunt and opposite a coffee shop. The outside of Hurley's is very attractive, glitzy, modern, bright and the window displays are inspiring, trendy and up to date. Inside the store is a good size with an area dedicated to the ladies on the left hand side and a mens section to the right. The store is bright, clean, well layed out and the displays are well presented. The ladies section has numerous designer brands including Miss Sixty, Hooch, Bench and Henleys and there is a good shoe section and some bags and fragrances too. The mens section stocks numerous designer brands too and they include Henleys, Bench and Henri Lloyd. The store is large enough for a sales section without cramping the area and is normally well worth a visit. There are fitting rooms and these are a good size, clean and modern. The checkouts are in both sections and are normally well staffed. Staff are very friendly, helpful and efficient, the atmosphere is good. The store is handy for accessing other stores within the development which include.Next, Argos, Tog, Asda, Currys, JD Sports, JJB and a host of others and also eating places eg KFC, McDonalds, Subway and Gregs. A great shop and one of my favourites when someone is treating me to something special, highly recommended.

St. Andrews Square is a little oddity of a place in a very central location. I've been shopping in…read moreBolton for 18 years and I think I've only ventured into here two or three times and each time my curiosity was piqued enough to explore, I came out the other side rubbing my head thinking 'huh? what did i miss?!' because quite frankly there's not a lot to it! The only thing that makes me venture here these days is the wonderful St Andrews Travel Agents. From the outside it looks curious and and you'd expect some interesting structure and architecture inside but it is just dark and scruffy and totally uncharming.

As a sales assistant at one of the new shops opened in St Andrews Court I may sound a tad bias but…read morethe whole court has come on leaps and bounds the last few months, everything you can ask for is opening up here! I work at Mr Simms Olde Sweet Shoppe in St Andrews Court we sell everything you can possible imagine from Twinkies to Sweet Peanuts! Why not pop down and see all the changes through out the shops, including Toy shops, Clothes shops, gift shops a new cafe opening soon and so much more to come. Watch this space :)

Provenance Food Hall and Restaurant sits on Market Street in Westhoughton, and has always boasted…read morean impressive food hall of local fresh meats, pies, produce and the like, but also has an upstairs restaurant which I've never been to before, so whilst in Westhoughton I thought I'd pop in for some breakfast. The restaurant area is on a first floor mezzanine level, looking down over parts of the food hall like a minstrels gallery. It's decorated in bright and fresh neutral colours, grounded by a natural wooden floor. Light cascades in through sash windows on two walls. Glimpses through cut-outs in the walls show further seating areas, for use in the full restaurant of an evening. I took a menu from the bar and had a read. The breakfast offerings look good, but as I read the menu I realise that the rest of the menu looks superb too! Steak nights, grill nights, Afternoon Teas and all sorts of other tempting things. I already decide before ordering that I must come again to the "proper" restaurant in an evening. I decided to order sourdough toast with whipped butter and marmalade, and a pot of Birchall's English Breakfast Tea, and was told to take a seat anywhere I like and it'd be brought over. I chose to sit by one of the sash windows and look down out over Market Street. Even seated I can see the fine quality finish on everything in this venue; the restaurant is the same quality and fit as the downstairs foodhall, meaning everything is spotless, modern, and pleasant. The staff upstairs seem to be as friendly and helpful as the staff downstairs too. It all feels very professional, whilst still very friendly. I observe other visitors who join after me, a mother and her children enjoying breakfast, some ladies-who-lunch ordering eggs benedict, and two young girls ordering soft drinks. It's nice to see that there's a mix of customers. My breakfast arrives, beautifully presented, but to be honest I wouldn't have expected any less from Provenance from what I've seen. The Fairtrade tea is delicious, and the sourdough toast has a superb crunch to it, the butter and marmalade both being of good quality, meaning you feel a bit spoilt for your breakfast, which can never be a bad thing. It was a very tasty breakfast, and cost less than four quid. Brilliant. Great place, and I can see that the quality and service are priority here, so I look forward to returning to try the evening menu sometime, and was already advised by another staff member to book in advance due to popularity!

I was Really nicely surprised by this place. Outside it's…read morequite unassuming, however inside is open, bright and have a nice atmosphere. Everything is clean and we'll kept; the staff are friendly and helpful. The food is fantastic; bread and pastries are baked fresh on site and there's a great deli downstairs. Prices are very reasonable. I'll definitely be coming here again.

Bolton Market Place is the main shopping centre in Bolton town centre, it isn't too bad for a small…read moretown and they have spent time/money on improving the centre and making it nice. Retailers located here include Boots, Clarks, JD Sports, Next and Vision Express. There is a much larger selection of shops on the high street, outside of the shopping centre, but I always prefer indoor centres especially on the cold, rainy days which we get more of our fair share of in England! My favourite area of the shopping centre is "The Vaults", which is the basement of the shopping centre. They've made it look very nice, with the exposed brickwork and it is also home to restaurants including Nando's and Prezzo. There is also a cinema within the mall from, Light Cinema. More recently, the mall is being used by the Bolton GP Federation and the NHS to provide COVID-19 vaccinations, I love this idea as it is helping the local community have easy access to vaccinations in the town centre. Many empty units sadly... it is such a shame to see as this mall really does have potential. Despite being rather empty, it still has a nice feel to it and the mall security to feel safe. 3*

A few months on and more improvement, they deserve another star!…read more Things are looking up for the market place and they are slowly transforming it into a place you'd want to spend your time. Football season is over for me which means Saturday's are now free again - the missus loves that - that also means I am open to be dragged around shopping centres each weekend now.. It was FA Cup final day however and luckily she does like Football so we decided instead of a trip to Manchester, we'd venture into Bolton and see what the developments were looking like. Definitely an improvement on my last visit a few month ago, and we spent just under 2 hours here on Saturday, which 5 years ago you just simply couldn't do! The 'Vaults' are open and starting to have more and more going on there, so far: Prezzo, Nandos and Great Ale are in there but Chef's Quarter and couple more offerings are in the works. The best thing about this visit was seeing the weekend markets! The market place has not had individual market stall since I was a wee kipper - so a good 15 years and it's great see them bringing back the old school approach even with the new modern building!

I have shopped at Wynsors on numerous occasions. I have always found the staff very friendly and…read morehelpful and I have never had to return any purchases that I've made there. I also think the prices are very reasonable.

A fairly large Marks and Spencer location, right next to ASDA in Middlebrook Retail Park in…read moreHorwich. While it might be a tad more expensive than ASDA next store, quality is obviously higher and they do have some food items which can't be found next store. The staff do seem friendly and try their best, I have memories of coming here for a cancelled free-from event, and the staff still put together a goody bag for me to make up for the event being cancelled, so they do try to put things right when they can. The food selection is pretty good, including a great selection of excellent quality sausages, some of which I couldn't find in other Marks and Spencer locations, they also have a comfortable cafe. 4* - Pretty good Marks and Spencer location, would be great to see an increased number of fresh counters in comparison to their Manchester - Market Street store.

This is a brilliant store but the cafe needs some serious updates and the self checkout needs to be…read morecard and cash the layout needs some updates and the signs could do with being remade after an update to the layout that clearly didn't work. But worker Whne the worker in the cafe was extremely nice to me and I would hire him myself.

I really like The Range. It's a gigantic version of what we used to call "knick knack shops" where…read moreyou can get pretty much anything for a low price. The difference being that The Range as well as selling washing up bowls and coasters and broken biscuits also sell a good amount of homeware, furniture, furnishings such as curtains and blinds, hobby/crafts, art supplies, and even gardenware and pet goods. Basically, if you need it, you can probably find it at The Range. This particular one is a good size, and has its own free car park with plenty of spaces.

The shop is fine, with many quality items at good prices. But beware the cowboys who run the…read moreparking. Many people I know won't use the store because of them.

A decent ASDA store, located in Horwich's Middlebrook Retail Park, I would say it is my least…read morefavourite out of the three supermarkets in the area, in comparison to Marks and Spencer next store, and the large Tesco Extra store, a five minute walk away, behind The University Of Bolton Stadium on Mansell Way, but this store still isn't too bad. I do find the current one-way system to get into the store, to be rather bad, it was put in place for COVID-19 reasons, but it often means if approaching from the right hand side of the retail park, you have to walk around the entrance, coming into contact with more people, I do feel this is something which is a huge problem at many stores who don't think it out very well and actually force pedestrians to walk onto the busiest car area of the car-park to enter. The checkouts always seem to be really slow, much worse than many other ASDA stores so it's a good job they have brought mobile scanning into this location, which makes the whole checkout process much easier: this is now in place at the majority of ASDA locations, a similar feature is avaliable at both other nearby supermarkets so this isn't unique or exclusive. The product range in non-food items and the customer service isn't as good as other stores. 3* - Useful store, but it wouldn't be my first choice to visit in the area.

Easy and convenient and on the way home from work. My parents also use the store on a regular basis…read moreand the M&S is nearby witch is useful also