Sevenstone
Encyclopedia
Sevenstone is the marketing name of the project formerly known as the New Retail Quarter/NRQ which involves the demolition and rebuilding of an area of Sheffield
Sheffield
Sheffield is a city and metropolitan borough of South Yorkshire, England. Its name derives from the River Sheaf, which runs through the city. Historically a part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, and with some of its southern suburbs annexed from Derbyshire, the city has grown from its largely...

, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 between the Devonshire Quarter
Devonshire Quarter
The Devonshire Quarter is an area in the centre of Sheffield, England. It is based around the Division Street and Devonshire Street shopping areas, known for their small independent shops and variety of pubs and bars...

 and The Moor
The Moor Quarter
The Moor Quarter is one of Sheffield's eleven designated quarters and based around and named for the The Moor. It is bound by Furnival gate in the north-east, Eyre Street in the south-east, St. Mary's gate to the south and Moore Street and Charter Row to the north-west.It is primarily a retail...

 Gateway. Sheffield City Centre
Sheffield City Centre
Sheffield City Centre—often just referred to as town—is a district of the City of Sheffield, and part of the Sheffield Central ward. It includes the area that is within a radius of roughly of Sheffield Cathedral, and is encircled by the Inner Ring Road—a circular route started in the late 1960s...

 has suffered from the collapse of steel making and then the opening of the Meadowhall
Meadowhall
Meadowhall is an indoor shopping centre in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. It lies three miles north east of Sheffield city centre and four miles from Rotherham town centre....

 shopping centre. The idea of the NRQ is to promote Sheffield as a regional retail destination and rival other centres including Leeds
Leeds
Leeds is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. In 2001 Leeds' main urban subdivision had a population of 443,247, while the entire city has a population of 798,800 , making it the 30th-most populous city in the European Union.Leeds is the cultural, financial and commercial...

 and Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...

. Located to the west of Pinstone Street, between Barkers Pool and Moorhead, the New Retail Quarter will cover a 20-acre
Acre
The acre is a unit of area in a number of different systems, including the imperial and U.S. customary systems. The most commonly used acres today are the international acre and, in the United States, the survey acre. The most common use of the acre is to measure tracts of land.The acre is related...

 site in the heart of Sheffield and will involve a major re-design of this part of the city.

Overview

The NRQ covers the relocation of John Lewis
John Lewis (department store)
-Recent developments:In June 2004, John Lewis announced plans to open its first store in Northern Ireland at the Sprucefield Park development, the province's largest out of town shopping centre, located outside Lisburn and from Belfast. The application was approved in June 2005 and the opening of...

, use of the old store as a two-tiered shopping mall with covered streets and the pedestrianisation of the centre
Sheffield City Centre
Sheffield City Centre—often just referred to as town—is a district of the City of Sheffield, and part of the Sheffield Central ward. It includes the area that is within a radius of roughly of Sheffield Cathedral, and is encircled by the Inner Ring Road—a circular route started in the late 1960s...

 and Charter Row, whilst creating Charter Square. The development also covers improvement of the infrastructure
Infrastructure
Infrastructure is basic physical and organizational structures needed for the operation of a society or enterprise, or the services and facilities necessary for an economy to function...

, new shops
Retailing
Retail consists of the sale of physical goods or merchandise from a fixed location, such as a department store, boutique or kiosk, or by mail, in small or individual lots for direct consumption by the purchaser. Retailing may include subordinated services, such as delivery. Purchasers may be...

, apartments and a multi-storey car park
Multi-storey car park
A multi-storey car-park is a building designed specifically to be for car parking and where there are a number of floors or levels on which parking takes place...

. The project will require demolition of several buildings such as the Grosvenor House Hotel, but will also preserve some listed buildings in the vicinity.

The £600m New Retail Quarter, masterplanned by architects BDP, will create a shopping and leisure environment in the heart of the city with a mixture of uses. 860000 sq ft (79,896.6 m²) of retail space will be created, including a 269000 sq ft (24,990.9 m²) John Lewis department store, designed by multi-award-winning architects O'Donnell + Tuomey, a new 100000 sq ft (9,290.3 m²) Next
Next (store)
Next Retail India Ltd is a subsidiary of the Videocon Industries Ltd and engages in retailing consumer electronics in India. It was founded in 2003 and currently has 600 showrooms across 25 states of India. It plans to open 400 new showrooms to increase its size to 1,000 odd retail stores by the...

 store, the remainder being around 100 new shops. In addition, up to 200 residential flats, a health club and leisure facilities, and a ten-storey car park with 1,696 spaces will be provided.

Burgess Street will be realigned by redirecting it down towards the bottom of Barkers Pool as appose to its current position parallel with Cambridge Street. The new street will be provisionally named New Burgess Street.

For this and other new parts of the city, architects from around the world will design a number of new buildings.

The intended start on site in 2010 will include the demolition of the Wellington Street fire station. The first retail buildings, including the new John Lewis store were due for completion in 2011, but the funding wasn't secured till 2011.

The second phase is due for a 2013 completion.

Work has already begun off-site. Enabling works (that is, providing the gas, water, electrical and telephone infrastructure) began in March 2006 on the roads surrounding the new site, including Division Street, Moore Street, Charter Row and others.

On the 12 October 2007, developers Hammerson unveiled the official marketing name for the NRQ as Sevenstone. The branding was welcomed by business and political leaders in Sheffield.

In March 2008, a 3-day public exhibition displayed the plans for Sevenstone in Sheffield City Centre
Sheffield City Centre
Sheffield City Centre—often just referred to as town—is a district of the City of Sheffield, and part of the Sheffield Central ward. It includes the area that is within a radius of roughly of Sheffield Cathedral, and is encircled by the Inner Ring Road—a circular route started in the late 1960s...

. Local press described the reactions of Sheffield citizens to the plans as 'mixed'.

On 29 January 2009 the Sheffield Star reported that the project had been put on hold indefinitely, based on an interview with Creative Sheffield (the city's regeneration company) who retracted the statement the following day. Creative Sheffield remain "optimistic" that Sevenstone will begin in 2010, though Hammerson's maintain there is currently no start date and Sheffield City Council does not believe work will commence until 2011. The funding was only just secured in 2011, but the council is now sure it will go ahead.

On the 17th June 2010 the coalition government announced the suspension of £12m of central funding toward the project. On March 15th 2011 Sheffield City Council announced that it was taking out a £10 million loan to kick start the stalled development. The money plus a further £10 million contributed by the developers Hammerson would be used to part finance the compulsory purchase of all the empty shops and land needed to build the scheme. If the council's cabinet authorises the loan, construction of the Sevenstone scheme is expected to start in late 2013 or early 2014.

Sources

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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