The Old Co-Op

The Old Co-Op

Project Overview

  • Project: The Old Co-Op
  • Client: Jomast Developments
  • Construction Value: £5.8m
  • Status: Complete
  • Location: Chesterfield

A sympathetic refurbishment to secure the building’s future.

Chesterfield has a rich history stretching back beyond the Roman times – most of the town centre’s buildings are from the 18th and 19th century. The site for our project was the former Co-Op building, Chesterfield’s largest department store which unfortunately closed in 2013.

Our design sought to enhance and preserve the future of the Co-Op building with simple external improvements and a range of internal changes to serve the new use as a hotel, and to secure the building’s future for many years to come. We worked to reverse unsympathetic amendments from previous updates and to preserve the key public elevations, respect the history, grain and character of the building.

The streetscape was particularly important to consider, as many of the shops in the surrounding conservation area had adopted poor quality fascias and shop fronts in insensitive and modern materials and colours. Our proposal included a style-guide to set a quality benchmark and to encourage others in the area to make a positive contribution to the wider conservation area.