Local practice James Paul Associates plans to convert the Eagle Mills on Victoria Street to 34 residential apartments, a nursery school, bakery and coffee shop and a new fabrication unit to house a long-term industrial tenant.

The derelict mill is set to be modernised through formation of a new link vennel from Brown Constable Street to a new garden following demolition of a northern section of the site, while restoring key elements such as the Victoria Street façade.

The plan is being progressed by Eagle Mill Capital Limited, which has owned the majority of the site since 2009, although one section remains in the hands of a third party.

Eagle Mill Capital managing director, Graham Giblen, said he hoped the council would approve the plans and ensure that a historic listed industrial building was brought back into use.

He said the scheme, which will retain features such as the mill’s stone floor and iron columns and roof trusses, now depended on gaining planning approval from the local authority.

“We have put everything in for full planning permission,” Mr Giblen told The Courier.

“It would be a two-year programme of work and we are ready to go. The timescale is ‘how long is a piece of string’ though as it depends on planning.”

In the planning statement the architects noted: “Having explored a variety of different uses in design studies, it is became clear that the central mass of the building, fronting Victoria Street, would lend itself to a conversion into to a predominantly two bedroom flatted development.

“The existing structural grid and bay divisions, combined with the high ceilings and large windows could provide excellent characterful and high-quality homes, without the need for excessively extensive structural or remodeling works to the historic structure.”

Images courtesy of James Paul Associates