Former Nottingham Debenhams store given listed status

The building on the corner of Long Row and Market Street was started as a single draper's shop in 1846

Nottingham's former Debenhams store has been granted Grade II listed status by the government.

The building on the corner of Long Row and Market Street was started as a single draper's shop in 1846.

It then became the Griffin and Spalding store in 1878 before being sold to Debenhams in 1944.

The building has now been listed by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport on the advice of Historic England.

The former store is made up of a range of buildings and the dominant corner block, developed by entrepreneurs W Griffin and JT Spalding, features carved cherubs and foliage.

In 1920 architects were commissioned to remodel the corner buildings in Portland stone, widely used for buildings along London's Regent Street

'Defines character of Nottingham'

Hugh Shannon, Historic England listing adviser, said the building was more than a store for many Nottingham people.

"It's a place that holds cherished memories of meetings with friends or family, of buying significant items for life events," he said.

"While some of these individual buildings are by Nottingham's best known and respected architects such as TC Hine and Son and William Dymock Pratt, it is the 1920s classically detailed, Portland Stone clad corner block by Bromley and Watkins at 40-44 Long Row which dominates.

"This brought to Nottingham a building in the style of the large shops in London's newly rebuilt Regent Street.

"In combination with the contemporary council house and the stone slabs which pave Old Market Square, it defines the character of the commercial centre of Nottingham."