Flats plan for Victorian department store building

The ground floor of the building has already been converted into shops and cafes

A developer has submitted new plans to turn part of a famous 19th Century department store into flats.

Bradford's former Brown, Muff & Co department store, which was more recently home to Rackhams, stands on the corner of Ivegate and Market Street and dates back to 1870.

Since it closed in 1995 the ground floor has been divided into a number of shops and cafes, but the upper floors have stood empty.

Now BFD 1 Development Limited has applied to Bradford Council to convert the second and third floor into 34 one-bedroom apartments, together with a gym, office space and a private dining room.

In 2017, another company, Stamford Properties, was granted planning permission to convert the upper floors of the building into a 69 room "aparthotel" – although work never started and that permission expired.

At the time the development was touted as a "major investment in the city centre and its economy".

In 2022 the same company was given the green light to convert the third floor of the former department store into 18 flats, but that work also did not go ahead.

The building was home to a department store from 1870 until 1995

The latest application is a request to see if the changes can be carried out using permitted development rules, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

Those rules allow empty office space to be converted into residential use without the need for a standard planning application.

A decision on the application is expected before the end of the year.

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