One of York’s historic Terry’s factory buildings could at last be brought back into use, after an occupant was finally found.
The Liquor Store building beside the landmark clock tower at the site has been empty since the famous chocolate factory closed in 2005, and a series of previous ideas and proposals have come to nothing.
But now, developers say a viable plan has finally been found. It involves dividing the building into three separate uses:
- A dental surgery on the ground floor
- A delicatessen, café and artisan food shop on the lower ground floor
- Open-plan office and studio space on the first floor mezzanine.
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Planning agents Arkle Boyce says a dental clinic has come forward for the main ground floor area, and securing that could attract other occupants for the rest of the building.
In a new planning application, the firm says there no other firm proposals for the building, other than housing, and says it is “imperative” that the dentist is accommodated “so the rest of the building can be viably brought back into use”.
It says: “It is crucial that this opportunity to bring the building back into a community-based use is not lost.
“The proposals will ensure that a crucial component of the original masterplan for the Chocolate Works is realised through an active and publicly accessible use for the building, with the Clock Tower already having lost the prospect of this use through the approval of its conversion to residential use.”
Built in the 1920s
The Liquor Store is one of the five original factory buildings on the factory site in Bishopthorpe Road, built between 1924 and 1930.
The factory closed in September 2005, with the loss of 300 jobs, after Kraft bought Terry’s and closed its historic home.
When the first plans for the site were drawn up, it was stated that the Liquor Store would be used for retail, food, leisure or community uses but that did not happen. Fresh plans were put forward in 2017, to turn it into an upmarket restaurant, café, bar and deli, but those too have come to nothing.
Arkle Boyce acknowledged that entire Terry’s site had become more residential than was first envisaged, with the broad mix of leisure, commercial and community uses never materialising.
In its planning statement, the company said the new plan was “the best option for an established use which will protect and preserve the building’s heritage for the future.”
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The company said the viability of the building was enhanced by having separate uses on different floors, and said there was a need to bring the building back into use as sensitively as possible.
The firm says it has met with a council planning official to discuss the new plans, and said it was agreed that the new plans would “significantly enhance” the wider development, as the only mixed-use part of the site.
The full application and a related application for Listed Building Consent can be seen on City of York Council’s planning website here. The case numbers are 21/02748/FUL and 21/02749/LBC.