The owner of the former Debenhams site on Parliament Street in Harrogate has unveiled plans to demolish it to make way for a brand new building that includes four floors of “high quality” apartments.

Wetherby-based property firm Stirling Prescient has posted a notice on the window of the former department store about its plans for the site, which has been empty since Debenhams closed for good in January this year.

It says the owner wants to build a new five-floor structure with retail, leisure and food and drink units on the ground floor and 1,2 and 3-bedroom apartments on the upper floors. There would also be a basement floor for car parking and bicycle storage.

The site had been a retail staple on Parliament Street for over a century. Before Debenhams, it housed the Buckley’s and Busby’s stores.

The statement adds there is no longer demand for the Victorian-era building to be used as a department store and it is not suitable for conversion to smaller units due to the building’s layout and age.

It warns if the building cannot be brought back into use the empty building could become an “eyesore” and “blight the high street”.

Another image of the proposals

How the store looked previously

Read more:

• Staff let go as Harrogate Debenhams will not reopen
• Harrogate shoppers say Debenhams will be much missed

The statement continues:

“The site is in Harrogate’s conservation area and is surrounded by a number of Grade II listed buildings and monuments. These heritage sensitivities have informed the contemporary and high-quality design of the development from the outset.”

The Stray Ferret has approached Stirling Prescient for more information about the development.

No formal planning application has been submitted but the owner is inviting comments from the public at the following email address: planning@westminsterhouseharrogate.co.uk

Read Harrogate historian Malcolm Neesam’s history of the Debenhams building here.

This History is written for the Stray Ferret by Harrogate historian Malcolm Neesam:

It was with great sadness that I learned of the pending closure of Debenham’s Parliament Street store, which I recall visiting as a small boy in the early 1950s when it still retained the name of its original founder, William Buckley.

From the middle of the 19th century, the site at the northern junction of Parliament and Chapel (now Oxford) Streets had been occupied by a photographer’s studio, the property’s address being 22 Parliament Street, which was occupied by a draper named Charles York.

Buckley’s first shop on Parliament Street, c1901. Copyright: Walker-Neesam Archive.

On his retirement in 1900, Mr York sold his business to a young draper from Nantwich, William James Buckley, who was attracted to Harrogate by the business potential offered by the fashionable and expanding borough. A later observer noted that William Buckley had been apprenticed to the drapery business from an early age, where he had learned that honesty and fair dealings were the basis for successful business.

The shop at 22 Parliament Street was well placed to catch the eyes of visitors to the Royal Baths, as the Wintergardens were located on the opposite side of the road, and thanks to some shrewd buying and displaying by Mrs Buckley, the display windows were filled with the latest fashions in jackets, mantles and costumes.

By 1909, the business was doing so well that Mr Buckley was able to extend his premises by adding a number of ancient and dilapidated properties in Oxford Street, including several highly picturesque buildings ranged round a courtyard and reached through an archway. These were demolished, and a new wing added, built of red brick, and featuring some handsome leaded windows of stained glass of an arts and crafts design. The only other brick buildings in central Harrogate were the 1862 Central Railway Station, the Hotel Majestic and the Grand Opera House, both of 1900, and the 1902 Beulah Street head-building of the central arcade, all of which have survived to this day, although only a small fragment of the Railway Station has survived the wreckers.

Buckley’s Parliament Street frontage was given a handsome pavement canopy of glass and iron, which was not only an invaluable means of encouraging pedestrians on a wet day, but which was also an embellishment to the street scene. In 1910 Mr Buckley bought 24 Parliament Street, where for many years Messrs Phillipson Ltd carried on a musical instrument dealers. There will still be piano stools scattered around Harrogate that contain music scores supplied by Messrs Phillipson Ltd.

After the Great War, Mr Buckley decided to rebuild the Parliament Street section of his business, and in1919, transferred the entire undertaking into the Royal Arcade at number 32, which he had leased in 1914-15, for the period of construction. After moving back into his rebuilt premises, Mr Buckley sold the Royal Arcade to Charles Walker and Son Ltd, who, after adding a handsome scalloped glass canopy over the entrance, installed Harrogate’s finest furniture store in the premises.

The new Parliament Street section of the store matched the 1909 wing, being of red brick with stone finishings around the windows. In those days, all the windows admitted light to the store, causing the delightful stained glass panels to reveal their colouring, an effect lost in the 1980s when Debenham’s blacked out all their windows, giving the interior a gloomily funereal atmosphere.

The rebuilt Buckley’s store was fitted throughout with a marvellous system of aerial wires that criss-crossed each floor carrying canisters containing money and receipts. They seemed to have been powered by a trigger mechanism that sent them whizzing round at high speed, and which were a most efficient means of dispensing change. Mr Buckley undertook a further extension in 1927 when he purchased the premises at 28 Parliament Street, then occupied by a popular cafe “The Lounge”, which had been much frequented by the town’s business people.

By the end of the decade, Buckley’s employed 130 staff, a considerable increase on the five employed back in 1900. The successful business caught the eye of Gordon Selfridge, who, in 1934 purchased it on behalf of Selfridge Provincial Stores Ltd, and when Mr Selfridge visited Buckley’s on January 25, 1934, he thanked the staff for their loyalty and advised them that Mr Buckley had been invited to join the Board of Directors, to ensure the preservation of such an important link. Two years later, in 1936, the company acquired the premises of fishmonger  JW Bentley at 36 Oxford Street, which meant that Buckley’s store now filled the entire corner site between Parliament Street and Union Street. Part of the Union Street property included the original St Peter’s School, which was used as a staff restaurant and joiners’ workshop.

Selfridge Provincial Stores was acquired by the John Lewis partnership in 1939, who in 1940 decided to enlarge the store by adding the premises at 30 Parliament Street, formerly occupied by Miss Edith Ingram’s Needlework business. At midnight on Saturday, December 27 1941, a fire broke out in the Parliament Street section of the store formerly occupied by “The Lounge” cafe, and because of the national emergency, it remained in a burnt-out state until the end of the war.

Busby’s on Parliament Street. Copyright: Walker-Neesam Archive.

In September 1953, Buckleys was acquired by Messrs Busby of Bradford in September 1953, who changed the store’s name to Busby’s – this was seven years after the death of WJ Buckley. 1958 saw Busbys pass into the hands of Debenhams Ltd, who planned a major rebuilding of the Parliament Street properties between the 1919 section and the premises of Charles Walker in what is now the Westminster Arcade. Work began in October 1960, and the new store was officially opened by Mayor G Morrell on Wednesday, November 21, 1962. Architect Victor Syborn showed his respect for the arts and crafts style of the pre-war store by providing a dull facade of pre-fabricated blue and cream rectangular panels, and by replacing the ornate glass-roofed Victorian canopy with a gloomy solid-roofed cantilevered canopy that darkened both the pavement and the shop windows.

At one time, all of Harrogate’s top businesses advertised their prestige by erecting beautiful iron and glass canopies over their frontages, which encouraged pedestrians to examine their window displays – examples being Bettys, Fattorini’s, Hoopers, Jespers, Ogdens and Wood. Buckley’s/Busby’s was another example, until it was ruined, so it would be a real embellishment to Parliament Street if whoever buys the building could restore the lovely original canopy, and open up the stained glass windows.

Malcolm Neesam was born in Harrogate and graduated from the University of Leeds as a professional archivist and librarian. He subsequently worked in Hereford, Leeds, London and York where, for twenty-five years, he was North Yorkshire’s County Music and Audiovisual Librarian. Malcolm is a much-published author. In 1996, Harrogate Borough Council awarded Malcolm the Freedom of the Borough for his services as the town’s historian.

For generations, the Debenhams building on Parliament Street has been one of the major retail landmarks in Harrogate.

It has also been one of the biggest stores, so news that is will not reopen has raised questions about the site’s future.

With many High Street stores struggling even before the lockdown, it won’t be easy finding a retailer for such a large unit.

Developers may scent an opportunity to apply for planning permission to convert some or all of the premises into flats, as has happened with the nearby former post office.

Stuart Holland, co-chair of Harrogate Civic Society, said the site had redevelopment potential but the sloping ground level made this challenging and demolition should be considered.

He hoped any new building would have shops on the ground floor to encourage footfall between Parliament Street and Oxford Street, adding:

“There is not a strong feeling, at this early stage of discussion, for retention of the building and a complete re-build may be welcome.

“A rebuild would give an opportunity to widen the footpath along the first section of Oxford Street and thus encourage the linking of retail areas – particularly as we see Oxford Street becoming home to new independent shops.

“There would also be an opportunity to improve the street scene along Union Street and to allow what is described as the rear entrance to Westminster Arcade to stand out more clearly than at present.”

Read more:

• Staff let go as Harrogate Debenhams will not reopen
• Harrogate shoppers say Debenhams will be much missed

Mr Holland said the upper floors were more suitable for residential use, adding:

“The size of the site lends itself to some creative design whilst ensuring that traffic pollution is not an issue. Car parking is available close by.

“There is a unanimous feeling that the new design should incorporate glazed canopies – taking reference from the many distinctive canopies in the town centre.”

Tom Snook

Tom Snook, managing director of Harrogate chartered surveyors Pantera Property, said the site should adapt to the “major shift” in retailing that is happening throughout the country. He added:

“The decline of bricks and mortar retail, which has been aggravated by the pandemic and the ensuing surge in online shopping, has meant that footfall is extremely low and it’s become difficult for retailers and restaurants to get a secure position in the market.

“The Debenhams building has always been something of a retail icon in Harrogate, which does also mean that it has great potential for change of use.

“I could certainly foresee it being redeveloped as residential apartments on the upper floors, perhaps with some form of boutique retail or serviced offices below.

“In the hands of an imaginative developer it would be great to see the building remain as an asset to Harrogate, albeit with a new identity.”

Look out for an article on the history of the Debenhams building in Harrogate by historian Malcolm Neesam this weekend on the Stray Ferret.

Debenhams has announced today that its store on Parliament Street in Harrogate will not reopen and staff will therefore lose their jobs.

It marks the end of the department’s store’s long history in Harrogate.

Debenhams had planned to reopen all of its stores to sell off stock but has changed its plans in light of the third national lockdown.

Harrogate is one of six sites where the company has been unable to agree a lease extension and its store will therefore close.

A total of 320 staff across the six sites will lose their jobs. The Stray Ferret has asked Debenhams how many staff are affected in Harrogate but had no response.

Read more:

• Harrogate shoppers say Debenhams will be much missed
• M&S buyout set to bring closure of Harrogate Jaeger store

Debenhams announced on December 1 that it would wind the business down after entering administration in April.

FRP Advisory, the administrator for Debenhams, said it was continuing to engage with third parties about the sale of all or parts of the business.

Geoff Rowley, a joint administrator to Debenhams and partner at FRP Advisory, said:

“We continue to engage with interested parties over alternative proposals for the future of Debenhams.

“Inevitably the latest lockdown has had an effect on our plans for the wind-down of the business.

“We regret the impact on those colleagues affected by today’s announcement.

“We would like to thank all those who continue to keep the business trading in very difficult circumstances.”

Shoppers in Harrogate have spoken of their disappointment that Debenhams is to close after the company announced it was entering administration.

A failed deal with another major retailer means the company is set to enter liquidation.

The Harrogate store reopened yesterday offering shoppers their usual products at discounted prices.

But staff face uncertain futures as they await news of a confirmed closure date.  The demise of Debenhams came a day after Ripon’s only department store Wrens, announced it would not be opening again after lockdown.  

Shopper Rose Dykes was among those sad to see Debenhams go. She said:

“Debenhams has been here for a long, long time.

“I think it will be really missed in Harrogate.”

Rose says the store will be ‘missed’ in Harrogate.

Read more:

• Debenhams announces it is entering administration. 
• WATCH as Harrogate shoppers speak of their excitement to be able to head back to the high street yesterday. 

Staff at Debenhams in Harrogate face anxious futures in the wake of today’s news that the company is due to be wound-up.

Debenhams employs 12,000 staff overall and its department store on Parliament Street in Harrogate has been a local shopping institution.

Debenhams confirmed its Harrogate store will reopen tomorrow. All stores are due to continue trading until stock is cleared.

But the outlook is bleak for staff as the festive season approaches.

The retail giant, which was founded 242 years ago, has been in administration since April. The collapse of a possible deal with JD Sports means the business is now set to enter liquidation.

Many High Street stores were struggling even before the pandemic. The retail group Arcadia announced yesterday it had entered administration, and shops will be desperate for a Christmas boost when they re-open tomorrow.

Read more:

• Harrogate’s independent stores say they need to be assured shoppers will return before agreeing to open late. 
• Harrogate hotels are feeling hopeful following tier two announcement.

Debenhams will reopen its Harrogate store on June 15 as retailers in the town centre gear up to bounce back after lockdown is eased.

The department store is preparing to open 50 of its outlets across the UK with strict social distancing measures in place.

Non-essential stores, such as clothing shops and electronic outlets, will be allowed to reopen as of June 15 as lockdown restrictions are relaxed further.

It comes as the future of Debenhams store in Parliament Street was thrown into doubt after the company filed for administration back in April.

Read more:

• Primark announces it will reopen Harrogate store
• Harrogate town centre will be deep cleaned in preparation for shoppers to return. 

Now, the store will reopen with Perspex shields at tills and PPE in place for staff as part of social distancing guidelines.

Steven Cook, chief executive of Debenhams, said the company was looking forward to opening again:

”We are delighted to be welcoming customers back to our stores in the coming weeks. 

“From the installation of perspex screens at till points to the roll-out of social distancing procedures and PPE, we have been working hard to ensure our colleagues and customers can work and shop with confidence. 

“Our reopening plans follow the successful conclusion of lease negotiations on 120 stores, meaning that the vast majority of our stores will be reopening.”

Debenhams could be missing from Harrogate town centre once it re-opens following the coronavirus crisis, after the national chain filed for administration.

It is the second time that the company has called in administrators, and it said the move was designed to get it through the current challenges in order to re-open stores once restrictions are lifted.

However, it is unclear how many and which of its branches will re-open, with 50 permanent store closures already announced. One Harrogate business leader said he was unsurprised by the news, as the chain had been in trouble for some time, and he did not expect the Harrogate store to re-open.

Bob Kennedy, chairman of Harrogate BID, said: “I’m sure there will be a Debenhams that comes out of administration. I would be very surprised if the Harrogate store was part of their plans.”

Mr Kennedy said he felt it was more likely the building would be split into smaller retail units on the ground floor and residential above. Such a large building was not likely to be appealing to many retailers, he said, as changes on the high street continue to affect brands’ needs.

The size of the Debenhams store makes it unlikely to appeal to a single retailer, according to Bob Kennedy

Regarding the pressures on other town centre businesses while the coronavirus continues, Mr Kennedy said the BID is doing all it can to ensure they make a strong start once trading is possible again.

“While nothing can be done physically at the moment, the board members are trying to put things in place so when we do all get re-open we are in the best possible position to try and catch up on some trade we’ve lost,” he said.

 “One of the main priorities is to make sure the town has had a good deep clean. Then to focus on the autumn and the run up to Christmas and making sure we try to have plans in place to make that as good as it can possibly be.

“For all these businesses that have lost an absolute fortune, hopefully it’s a chance to catch up and pull at least some money back.”