Highly-anticipated designs for Edinburgh's iconic Jenners store have been unveiled, with images of a top-lit roof terrace and a 96-room hotel amongst those being released by architects, with big changes coming to the city centre department store.
After the building was sold to the owner of the fashion group Bestseller in 2017 for £53 million, the building has laid dormant since the pandemic began in 2020, with a separate feud regarding the iconic Jenners sign seeing it removed and then reinstated last year.
The building, built in 1895, now faces a new lease of life in a way that will retain the building's natural beauty.
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David Chipperfield Architects plans for the building include a 96-bedroom boutique hotel, together with a bar and restaurant, above overhauled retail areas.
There will also be a top-lit roof terrace with extraordinary views of the city and the famous Edinburgh Castle.
The project, also backed by Anders Holch Povlsen's property company AAA United, includes restoring the historic facade, revamping and part re-modelling the linked 1960's Princes Street building, adding a whole new floor and frontage including the roof terrace to a Rose Street building with a single-storey roof extension.
Under the proposal, the three-storey, top-lit grand saloon at the heart of the Victorian Renaissance Revival style will be ‘restored to its former splendour as a unique public space that is integral to both the department store and hotel’.
In a design and access statement lodged with Edinburgh City Council, AAA United director Anders Krogh said: "When we acquired the Jenners building, we knew that it came with a great deal of responsibility. It is iconic within Edinburgh’s built environment and integral to the city’s cultural heritage. We approach this renovation with upmost respect for the historic importance and value placed upon the building by the people of Edinburgh.
"We understand the scale of the challenge and are fully dedicated to honouring this building and its place within the future of Edinburgh.’
Krogh continued: "The original Jenners building will always stay and is the very DNA of our plans, with the redevelopment of a vibrant, sustainable and accessible department store being the heart of the project. Our major focus is to bring back a fully refurbished department store, supplemented by a food and beverage and hospitality offering.
"The grand saloon always was and will remain the primary feature of the building, situated at the centre of the department store and open for the people of Edinburgh and visitors alike to experience.
"The boutique hotel will occupy the upper levels of the building, much of which has been unused for decades."
