The changing face of Sneinton

When it comes to Nottingham’s recent wave of regeneration, all eyes have been on the south of the city, with its high-profile developments and a dramatically different look just a few years away.

Plenty of attention has also been drawn to the Boots Island site, which could soon become one of the largest developments anywhere in the country.

But a few hundred yards away in once-dishevelled Sneinton, wide-scale change is also in the pipeline, and the area is braced for a facelift of its own.

Nestled on the edge of Hockley, it has already seen a significant change in recent years, in part because of the rebuilding of Sneinton Market.

It is also home to the Creative Quarter, with the likes of specialist multimedia education centre Confetti, performance venue Metronome and creative hub Antenna.

With the public investment has come private developments, as new offshoots have appeared and grown around the larger institutions, with galleries, restaurants and theatres popping up and flourishing.

But amidst all this, one area obviously needing improvement has remained, around the old housing aid office in Huntingdon Street.

This, and the low-rise Royal Mail office next to it, remain eye-sores, and their neighbours changing has only made them stand out more.

But perhaps not for long. The services once offered from the Housing Aid building are being moved to the city council’s headquarters at Loxley House, opposite the Train Station, and the building is set for demolition.

So the city’s planning chiefs have used the occasion to refresh their masterplan for the area.

It shows not just how they want the new building on the housing aid site to look and feel, but also how they see the whole area developing in the coming years.

It’s not a formal or legally-binding document, but rather guidance for developers.

Top of the list of planning requirements is green credentials. With the city aiming to become the first carbon-neutral city in the UK by 2028, planners have said any new building should achieve a high level of sustainability, including green roofs and greywater recycling.

There are currently eight sites where change is either underway or in the pipeline.

Down the road from the Housing Aid site, at 149-169 Lower Parliament Street, planning permission has been approved for cafe, bar and exhibition space, with a six-storey student accommodation block above it.

This is immediately next to the main pedestrian entrance to Sneinton Market.

At the other end of the market, on avenues D and E, planning permission has been granted for 44 new apartments, including 36 student apartments, with bars, cafes and shops on the ground floor, which will essentially extend the retail space of the market itself.

Just across the road from the Housing Aid site, there’s the £8 million Fruit Market site, with 40 custom-built, high-end homes.

At the other end of Brook Street, outline permission (meaning permission in principle but not detail) has been granted for a seven-storey development, with 42 apartments or 91 student beds on the Cowan Street Car Park.

Next door to that, at Bendigo Court, planning permission has been granted for 101 apartments.

In total, hundreds of new apartments and student blocks are set to go up, integrated into the dozens of new cafes, shops and creative spaces also being built.

Stephen Barker is the chief executive of the Creative Quarter, which aims to attract people to Nottingham in the digital and creative industries.

He said: “Not long ago there was a down at heel feel to the east side of the city centre and the edges of Sneinton but that’s all changed now.

“The city council and EU funded transformation of the former fruit and vegetable market into a hub for creative businesses and a new venue for cool events has kick-started a wave of private sector investment that is beginning to turn the area into one of the smartest and coolest parts of Nottingham; a great place to meet up, to hang out, to learn and to work.”

Councillor David Mellen is the leader of the council and the portfolio holder for regeneration.

He said: “There’s a real sense that Nottingham’s time has come, with a huge amount of development, especially around the city’s Southside.

“There’s a great deal of change to the east, too, with the rejuvenated Sneinton Market area now attracting new developments and the Island site poised to become one of the largest regeneration schemes in the country.

“There are proposals for more city living in the area between Bath Street and Huntingdon Street / Parliament Street, with great potential for the housing aid site and neighbouring sites to really be transformed in the coming years.

“It shows that there’s an enormous amount of confidence in Nottingham and with these developments and opportunities in the heart of the Creative Quarter, confirmation that our focus on the creative sector is paying off.”