Bracknell has been praised for the success of its modern town centre as a shopping destination.

The Lexicon shopping centre was opened in 2017 after years of redevelopment.

The centre has seen success since then, welcoming Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II in 2018, weathering the difficult period of the pandemic to welcome the Bracknell Forest Giants in 2021.

A retail property expert has praised business and council leaders in the town for The Lexicon town centre regeneration project.

Fiona Brownfoot director of retail, restaurant and leisure at commercial property marketers Hicks Baker said: "I think Bracknell did a stunning job, I have to say, hats off to them.

"I really think that I think they did a very, very good job of integrating The Lexicon into the existing and I think the developers did a very good job of upgrading land, that they didn't own, in order to blend it nicely and to give a nice circle of flow so that it's not 'The Lexicon' and 'the rest of it'.

"It was actually blended in quite nicely.

"They spent quite a lot of money on the car parks, footways, lighting and signage.

"I think they spent quite a lot of money on land around their own ownership in order to improve it all, to improve the setting, which is very important.

"So I think they, I think they did pretty well with it as a scheme architecturally it was very good and you know, they did do very well with securing some of the tenants."

However, The Lexicon has seen some turbulence in its roster of shops.

Five shops closed at the shopping centre last year, with a Bracknell favourite in Coffee Barker also closing this June due to rising business rates and costs.

READ MORE: Coffee Barker given two days notice before being shut down for good

Last year saw the closure of Paperchase, the Plush and FourState homeware stores, Menkind and the Seasalt clothing store.

Although Fiona admitted there is a 'churn' of businesses occupying spaces in The Lexicon, more than 95 per cent of the centre is occupied according to statistics from February this year.

Fiona said: "Obviously, like everywhere, there's been a lot of churning, you can't help that.

"Chains sometimes don't work out.

"It's not necessarily that particular location that's brought a chain down.

"It could well be that it's other locations that brought the chain down but Bracknell would unfortunately have to bear the brunt of it."

Development in the town centre is not over either, as consideration is being undertaken into what will happen to The Deck project.

The area covering the former Bentalls store was envisaged as a place for 14 more flexible retail and leisure units that received planning permission in 2019.

But that project has been put on hold, with Bracknell Forest Council and the Bracknell Regeneration Partnership considering what to do with the site.