More and more shops, pubs, and empty retail units seem to be being converted into flats and homes across Northampton.
This could be due to the effects of the Covid crisis, which has hit the High Street hard.
Northampton Partnership Homes, for example, unveiled a new strategy in June 2020 outlining its ‘aspiration’ to build 3,000 new homes in the town over the next decade.
West Northamptonshire Council also has its own plans of delivering 18,000 homes and the creation of 28,500 jobs this decade.
Over the next few years we should be seeing the completion of these homes.
So this newspaper has rounded up a list of locations where plans have been submitted or approved to convert units into housing.
1. Rose and Claret/The Ironside
Plans were submitted in 2019 and later approved to flatten a derelict pub building in Northampton. The plans will see the former Ironstone pub, in Hunsbury Hill Road, which was previously the Rose and Claret, demolished and replaced with a new three-storey building containing 11 apartments.
2. Spring Boroughs
The Northampton neighbourhood is currently undergoing a huge change as demolition is underway on seven blocks of flats. St Mary’s Court and Berkeley House, off Horsemarket, in the Spring Boroughs area of Northampton will make way for more modern council houses. The demolition of a total of 82 flats built in the 1960s started last month and workers are currently knocking down St Mary’s Court, which comprises of 22 flats in three blocks. Berkeley House, formed of 60 flats in four blocks, will also be bulldozed, with the intention of the demolition phase of the project completing by the end of May, 2021. As part of the £15.9 million project, once the site is clear, Northampton Partnership Homes has planning permission in place to build 126 new and affordable homes, which will include both flats and houses and is due to complete in late 2023.
3. The Cuckoo's Nest
The Cuckoo’s Nest pub in Great Russell Street, The Mounts – formerly the HQ – is set to become six one bedroom flats, which will be managed by a management agent or sold on the open market. Planning papers say: "The public house has fallen into disrepair and has been unprofitable for many years - struggling to survive with several public houses in the area: Swan and Helmet, Charles Bradlaugh and the Bat and Wickets. "The former pub was riddled with crime and closures and received much negative press for drugs and crime."
4. Sofa King
The former cinema building in Far Cotton, Northampton, will be converted into 40 flats. Roses Drapery Stores Ltd applied to Northampton Borough Council for permission to demolish the old Tivoli Cinema in Towcester Road which has stood empty for several years after previously being used as a sofa company store. The plan includes the building of a retail unit at ground floor level as well as 39 car parking spaces and cycle storage facilities.