Preston City Council's plans for listed courthouse revealed

The courthouse at the corner of Lancaster Road and Earl Street was built originally in 1857

A council has put in plans to turn an unused Grade II-listed courthouse into a flexible workspace hub.

Revamping Preston's Amounderness House was part of the city's Towns Fund bid in 2021 and the first details of the conversion were revealed in February.

Preston City Council's applications said mid-20th Century additions to the site would be demolished and a new extension would be built to allow it to function as a "commercial space".

It will invest £7.4m in the scheme.

The Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) said Amounderness House fell within Preston's Market Square Conservation Area and as such, the council's heritage experts had advised that any future scheme "must ensure that the heritage value of the area is preserved or enhanced".

Under the new proposals, the courtyard will be turned into a public space

The courthouse at the corner of Lancaster Road and Earl Street was built originally in 1857 as a police station with holding cells, before being extended in 1901.

It has been largely redundant since new courts were opened on Ringway in the mid-1990s.

The building was developed around a courtyard area, which is currently used to park council vehicles.

Under the new proposals, the yard will be turned into a public space and a small electricity substation will be installed nearby to support the new usage.

The LDRS said the plans were put together after the authority was unable to find a solely commercial solution to bringing the premises back into use.

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