All this. I had to do two weeks of jury duty in Preston a couple of years ago, which gave me the opportunity to wander around the centre and explore a bit. Apart from the ghastly 60s shopping mall attached to the bus station it’s (whispers) not a bad place, the actual bus station, source of much controversy, needs a facelift but works well with the car park and the town centre has some decent Georgian and Victorian buildings.
The hospital is good and there’s a Booths opposite the front entrance, which is a sure sign of a good area. North of Preston is nice as long as you don’t stray into Blackpool. Preston is on the West Coast main line and has a decent station with good parking. It does have the slowest traffic lights in Britain though. There are plenty of Polski Skleps and Asian restaurants although no good Middle-Eastern food yet, though you’ll find kebabs. Preston has an excellent sixth form college, Cardinal Newman, where my son is right now and he’s enjoying himself there. Property prices are OK and traffic isn’t too bad as long as you stay off the M6. Most importantly from Preston you have a choice of flat cycling out on the Fylde or hilly if you head east. Mountain biking isn’t great around there because it’s mostly agricultural though you’re only an hour from the Dales and Calderdale or even Gisburn if you don’t know how to use an OS map. If you want to know more don’t hesitate to PM and I’ll do my best to help; I could even arrange guiding for a bike tour or car-borne recce of the area if you bought my lunch!