Revealed: plans to restore two historic Nottingham buildings to former glory
Plans to restore two of Nottingham’s beautiful historic buildings have been revealed.
Nottingham City Council has received planning applications for the restoration of 17 Angel Row, Newcastle Chambers and Gordon House at 6-12 Carrington Street.
The work will see repairs to their façades and restoration of their historic shopfronts.
Old photographs and original architectural drawings contributed to an authentic proposal for the reinstatement of a shopfront for 17 Angel Row. This Georgian building is home to Cardzone on the ground floor and Chameleon Arts Cafe on the first floor – both will continue to occupy the building.
Plans include replacing the existing shopfront with a traditional one which reflects the earlier character of the building with hardwood frames and hand-painted signage. Repairs will be made to the façade including to the distinctive shop window on the first floor. First floor windows are important in the history of the high street when retailers began displaying their goods in large windows on the ground and first floors.
Featured in Historic England’s report ‘Buildings in the Broadmarsh Area of Nottingham’, 6-12 Carrington Street is a 1920s building in the Beaux-Arts classical style. It began life as the home of T. Shipside Ltd, distributor of the popular Morris and Singer vehicles. A wide expanse of full height glazing and a prominent spot on Carrington Street provided an excellent location for their principle car showroom in the late 1920s.
17 Angel Row courtesy of Google Maps
Reinstatement of the glazing to the ground floor will create a new offer of vibrant retail space, says the Council, and repairs will be made to the upper floor façade. Bhatia Best Solicitors will continue to occupy the upper floors. It is located next to the site where the City Council is developing the new Broadmarsh car park and bus station.
Following the submission of the planning applications, the building owners and their architects are now working on applications for conservation area grant funding. The funding will come from Nottingham City Council’s conservation area grants schemes:
– Old Market Square, The Lace Market and Sneinton Market Conservation Area Grant Schemes, in partnership with Historic England as part of the Nottingham Heritage Action Zone. 17 Angel Row will apply for funding from this scheme, which overall is worth £2.7 million for heritage led regeneration.
– 6-12 Carrington Street will apply for funding from Carrington Street Area Townscape Heritage Scheme in partnership with The Heritage Lottery Fund. Overall, this scheme is worth £1.7 million.
These conservation area grant schemes aim to improve the attractiveness of the city centre, breathe new life into some of the city’s neglected historic buildings and transform the city centre’s ‘at-risk’ conservation areas. They also aim to boost the city’s economy; with upwards of 12 million visitors per year, tourism in the city is worth an estimated £466m.
Decisions on the grant applications are expected this autumn.
