M&S have been clear and consistent: they will not continue trading in Blackburn town centre beyond 2027 — and could close the store even sooner once the new Food Hall at Whitebirk opens. The building, by their own admission, no longer fits their retail model. The cost of modernising the current premises or moving to alternative town centre sites, such as the former Thwaites Brewery location, simply doesn’t stack up for the company. It doesn’t align with their future-focused food-led trading style, which centres around convenient, accessible, purpose-built units like the one now planned for Frontier Park.
There were hopes among some that M&S could be persuaded to stay in the heart of the town, but those hopes were not grounded in commercial reality. The Thwaites site — despite being proposed as an alternative — was never going to work. Too costly, too complicated, and simply not suited to M&S’s modern store requirements.
The decision by Hyndburn Council to approve the new £10m development at Whitebirk not only secures M&S’s continued presence in the area, but also retains 75 existing jobs and adds around 120 more. In this climate, that’s not just a win — it’s a lifeline.
It’s easy to view this as another nail in the coffin for Blackburn’s struggling town centre. But sometimes, the best decisions come from accepting the reality of change and adapting to it. Frontier Park offers the kind of visibility, parking, and infrastructure that meets national retailers’ expectations in 2025 — not 1995.
This move should now serve as a wake-up call. If the town centre is to thrive in a post-M&S era, it needs bold, creative thinking and a focus on experiences, independents, and community-first regeneration. But holding on to legacy names at any cost is no longer an option.
In the end, M&S didn’t walk away from Blackburn. Blackburn evolved — and the store is coming with it, just in a different shape and place.
