Landmark Leicester city centre building set for 'transformation' into 'welcoming hub'

www.leicestermercury.co.uk 6 min read

A café, boutique shop, events space and yoga area are all proposed

A historic listed Leicester building could be transformed into a “welcoming” community “hub”. The ISKCON building, in Granby Street  , is widely considered to be one of the city’s most treasured Victorian landmarks.

Built in 1874, the Grade-II-listed property stood for a long time as a prominent bank in the heart of the city. However, it has been left empty for around six years after HSBC withdrew from the site.

That lack of use, coupled with a lack of maintenance, has seen the condition of the historic building deteriorate  . The International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) bought the building in 2011 with a plan to bring it back into use as a place of worship and a community centre  .

Approved plans also included accommodation for resident monks, as well as office space, seminar rooms and a restaurant. However, the damage to the building from its period of disuse also saw it listed on the Historic England  Heritage at Risk Register.

Work in recent years has seen the roof of the building – the main contributor to its poor condition – renovated and refurbished to make it watertight. It is hoped this effort will see the property removed from the register  .

Now, ISKCON is proposing a new round of works which it says it hopes will “unlock the building’s full potential” by “transforming the ground floor and basement into a welcoming hub for the community”. The organisation said it hopes to create a “place where wellbeing, celebration, and heritage converge”.

Under the plans, the courtyard area leading to Town Hall Square  will be opened up with a new entrance into the building and a café  created to serve it. The courtyard would be covered, plans state, with rain gardens planted there.

The proposals would also see a boutique shop  set up, “showcasing spiritual heritage-inspired goods”, as well as a “multi-purpose space for yoga, workshops, and educational programmes” and a “flexible event and exhibition space for cultural displays, and community gatherings and celebrations” created.

The plans would see the proposed changes kept to the ground floor and basement level. Internal work is proposed to “make the building wholly accessible”, including a new ramp to negotiate the changing levels of the ground floor.

ISKCON said the changes are needed to ensure it can “generate income  ” needed to allow them to “service and maintain the building appropriately” and secure the “valuable heritage asset for a long term future”. The proposals would also bring a number of benefits outside of that, it added.

These include improving public access to the building, drawing attention to it and raising public awareness of its significance. It would also “raise the profile” of ISKCON itself “as custodians of the building, enabling their further integration into the community and bringing the benefits of their charitable activities and social awareness further into the public eye”.

ISKCON added: “These developments will draw more people into the heart of the building, and ensure it serves as a sanctuary in the city centre – a place of calm, learning, and inclusion […] We consider that this approach will not obscure the importance of this unique piece of architecture which is highly significant to the place, but will draw greater attention to it enabling future generations to understand the history of the place and establish a commercially viable future for the building.”

Residents are able to comment on the plans until Thursday, November 20, with more information available on the Leicester City Council  planning portal. A target decision date has been set for Wednesday, December 3. Planning documents suggest a further application will be submitted in due course for the building’s Banqueting Hall.