Apartments planned for historical shopping arcade

Dozens of apartments could be created within a Grade II-listed shopping precinct.

Plans have been unveiled to transform the vacant upper floors of the 19th-Century Miller Arcade in Preston, Lancashire, after years of standing empty.

A total of 46 properties are proposed across the top three storeys of the building – bound by Church Street, Lancaster Road, Birley Street and the Flag Market – along with communal facilities for residents.

If the blueprint is approved, the retail units on the ground floor of the arcade – which became the first indoor shopping area in the city when it opened in 1899 – would continue to trade as normal.

The conversion proposal, by Darwen-based Icon Heritage Limited, comes 11 years after a similar vision put forward by a different company was approved. That scheme, which featured a new restaurant and a roof garden was never delivered.

The new plans are for 24 one-bed, 18 two-bed and four studio flats, whose occupiers would have shared access to a cinema, gym, library, workspace, meeting room, kitchen and lounge.

The landmark is renowned for its Victorian Baroque architecture and was modelled on the larger Burlington Arcade in London. The floors now earmarked for apartments once housed hotels, a Turkish Baths, a wine lodge and, most recently, offices.

The applicant sought advice from the city council before submitting their plans and was advised that the principle of the proposal was "wholly acceptable", the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

It comes as plans to demolish St John's Shopping Centre look set to be given the green light by councillors.

Members of Preston City Council's planning committee will next week consider a proposal to flatten the precinct and replace it with tower blocks and a landscaped courtyard connecting the bus station to the markets quarter.

The scheme would signal the end of the retail destination – more than six decades after the first customers walked through its doors, back in 1965.

In its place would spring up two towers – closely linked to a third, already approved for a neighbouring plot – which would together accommodate up to 500 apartments, new retail units and a city centre NHS facility.

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