Bolton moves forward with £250 million Crompton Place shopping centre development
Victoria Square Bolton (CGI from Chapman Taylor)
Planning permission has been granted for the £250 million replacement of Crompton Place Shopping Centre, a development which lies at the heart of Bolton Council's £1.5 billion town centre master-plan.
The development includes a 110-bedroom hotel, 150 homes, 10,500 square metres of office space and a mixed-use retail, leisure, dining and events space, dubbed 'Bolton Works' designed to accommodate independent retailers and food operators as well as providing incubator space for small business and start-ups.
It will be integrated into the wider streetscape and urban fabric to help reunite Bradshawgate with Victoria Square and improve the access and pedestrian flows within the town centre.
It will also act as a formal backdrop to the town hall, completing the high-quality set-piece of the square and featuring a colonnade which shelters artisan cafes and restaurants.
A comprehensive public realm design will provide a predominantly pedestrianised environment with user-friendly shared surfaces designed in line with current best practice. Great emphasis has been placed on long-term economic and environmental sustainability through the complementary mix of uses, choice of materials, soft landscaping, green roof terraces and rainwater collection, as well as centralised energy centre, natural ventilation and solar collection.
Partner at Chapman Taylor, Tim Partington, spoke about the plans for Bolton while contributing on a city centre regeneration panel at Future Cities Forum's February event:
'Successful regeneration plans are about hooking into the layers of history. Much of the important connectivity of cities has been lost and built over by road engineering. At Bolton we are master-planning a significant part of the core of the town. It is important to talk and listen to the community. We had a three day public consultation in Bolton, in a vacant shop, with an ideas wall for anyone to write on. It was an opportunity to talk and listen. You get a very diverse set of views and we also talked at length with other stake-holders from the Civic Trust and Places Matter. The master plan has evolved as result.'