DID your trips to Poole once include browsing the records and electricals in Rumbelows?

Did you shop for bargains in Unique Stores, or look for LPs, stationery and books in John Menzies?

Maybe C&A was a regular stop on your shopping trips, or perhaps you flipped through the records and tapes in Our Price.

You might even recall when Poole’s Beales store used to be Bealesons.

If so, you’re sure to enjoy some of these pictures from the Daily Echo archives showing the Dolphin Centre – called the Arndale Centre until 1989 – over the years.

As a recent Echoes feature recalled, the Arndale changed the face of Poole when it opened in July 1969, with key tenants including Beales, J Sainsbury and Boots. It brought together not only six big ‘stores’ and 93 shops, but a bus station, sports centre, library, pub and car park.

Phase two of the development took place in the 1980s, by which time the centre had acquired some more key stores including a large Tesco and Littlewoods.

The centre continues to be at the heart of retail in Poole, with plans afoot to refurbish the centre, add more shops and even introduce a multiplex cinema at the site of the former Argos.

John Grinnell, centre manager at the Dolphin Shopping Centre, said: “The shopping centre develops year on year, bringing further reasons for residents and tourists to visit. 2018 is a truly exciting year for the centre and will bring many changes.

“The £26million programme of investment will introduce an exciting multiplex cinema, new dining choices and top retailers, including Swedish fashion favourite H&M, as well as German shoe retailer Deichmann and the upsizing and expansion of New Look.”