A report has urged the 'imaginative reuse' of six of Nottinghamshire's most iconic department stores. It comes as Britain’s department stores face "an existential crisis thanks to the pandemic and rapidly changing shopping patterns".
SAVE Britain's Heritage, a group seeking to protect historic buildings, has compiled a list of the country's most at risk former department stores. Many are facing an uncertain future as high street retail continues its decline into 2022.
Six department stores, five in Nottingham and one in Mansfield, have been listed in the report. It argues these so-called 'cathedrals of commerce' should be brought back in to use in imaginative and innovative ways which respect the buildings' history.
Read more: History of striking Notts building
Marcus Binney, executive president of SAVE Britain’s Heritage, says: “London has Fortnums, Harrods and Selfridges but all over Britain, cities, towns, spas and seaside resorts boast handsome department stores built on proud corner sites or set prominently on high streets. Many were designed by local architects of note and founded by leading local families and all are destinations in themselves. Yet a decade of online shopping and Covid have brought an avalanche of closures. A race is now on to put life back into them. It’s a tough challenge but as Hattie Lloyd’s report shows there is hope too."
Below is a list of the buildings listed in the report:
Griffin & Spalding
The report describes the former Griffin & Spalding building in Old Market Square, which was most recently inhabited by Debenhams, as "an iconic feature of the city’s historic centre". It was founded in 1846 by two brothers, Edward and Robert Dickinson and in 1878 the majority of the business was purchased by W. Griffin and J. T. Spalding.
The pair extended the store around 10 years later, and again in 1911, replacing two older buildings to the east. During the excavations to do so the report states "a rather grisly discovery was made". Four skeletons, and an additional skull, were found and considered to be "at least a century old at the time and most likely plague victims".
In 1924 the Portland stone facade was constructed by Bromley and Watkins. It was bought by Debenhams in 1944, officially rebranded in 1973, and now stands vacant upon the firm's collapse into administration last year.
Jessop & Son
The Grade-II listed building in King Street was designed by Watson Fothergill. It came to be in 1895 for Zebedee Jessop, a Lincolnshire-born businessman and friend of James Marshall of the "flourishing department store Marshall & Snelgrove".
In 1933 John Lewis purchased what is now known as Fothergill House. SAVE Britain's Heritage says: "Extensive refurbishment of the King Street premises was completed in 2018. The building has been converted to office use on the upper floors with restaurant units on the ground floor, although the tower and some of the upper storeys’ rooms were still out of use as recently as 2019."
Woolworths
The city's very first Woolworths opened in Lister Gate in 1914. It today stands as the only purpose-built Woolworths building to be Grade-II listed. Sadly the prominent shopping street has been in decline over the past few years, with footfall affected by the ongoing and tumultuous Broad Marsh redevelopment.
"Woolworths’ in-house architect B. C. Donaldson designed this striking, symmetrical facade clad in faience tiles," SAVE says. "Steel casement windows with decorative panels are separated by giant pilasters bookended by Art Deco motifs." The building was inhabited by an M&S Home store until its closure in 2020, a few months after the coronavirus pandemic began in the UK. Nottingham City Council has since granted the building’s owners, Hunter UK Retail Limited Partnership, permission to convert the property into student accommodation.
Co-operative House
"Startlingly grand, Nottingham’s former Cooperative store in Upper Parliament Street is a handsome terracotta-fronted structure, built between 1915 and 1916 to designs by William V. Betts. Renaissance Revival in style, the exteriors incorporate fantastic carved elements, including pilasters, swags, columns, and a domed turret, part of further additions made in the late 1920s," SAVE Britain's Heritage said.
It was at one stage home to the Elizabethan Ballroom and a silver spoon restaurant, which was also used for events. The Beatles played here alongside Gerry and the Pacemakers in 1963.
The Co-op stopped trade in 2001 and in 2009 the building was restored by Henry Boot Developments. It was converted into office, residential and commercial space, including a casino.
Boots
Clothing giant Zara today inhabits what has been described as "undoubtedly one of Alfred Nelson Bromley’s finest buildings for Boots". Neighbouring buildings were demolished to make way for road-widening works and it was after these the opportunity was taken to create "a more impressive central depot constructed 1902/5 in an ornate Renaissance Revival style".
Boots today primarily focuses on pharmacy, optometry and photography, but it had operated as a department store for a considerable part of the 20th century. This, SAVE Britain's Heritage says, was "the result of both Boot’s own ambition, and the influence of his wife Florence, who took an active role in the business".
The building was a flagship store and included a café, picture gallery, smoking room and ‘Boots Book lovers Library’, and in the 1960s it still boasted departments for pets, toys, gardening, records, jewellery, leather goods and winemaking. Boots left in 1972.
Mansfield and Sutton Co-operative Society
The Beales department store was based in the building until this year, it was previously occupied - and built - by the Mansfield and Sutton Co-operative Society from 1935.
The building is in fact an extension to the main Co-operative building on Stockwell Gate that opened in 1922 after the original in the same location was destroyed by fire in 1918. The first part of the building was completed in 1938, and an extension added in 1963.
SAVE Britain's Heritage adds: "After standing empty for two years, hope for the building’s future has at last emerged after Mansfield District Council purchased the site in early 2022, with intentions to use the premises as its new headquarters. A town regeneration masterplan announced in late 2021 proposes to introduce a mix of uses, including residential, student accommodation and office space –alongside retail – across this and fifteen other buildings in the town centre.
"The council have also received government funding to formulate a design code for the project, fostering a unified local vernacular across the redevelopments."
