Bid to redevelop site of former Chester Enterprise Centre

Back in December 2010, a massive fire tore through Chester Enterprise Centre, off Hoole Bridge, reducing it to a shell and affecting dozens of businesses.

Several years later, in 2017, plans were revealed to create a new state-of-the-art history centre at the site, in a £13m collaboration between CWaC and Cheshire East Council, replacing the 'no longer fit for purpose' Cheshire Record Office in Duke Street. Another such history centre would be built in Crewe.

Now plans have been officially submitted on behalf of the Cheshire Archives and Local Studies Service, which houses collections dating back more than 900 years.

The collections represent a unique and irreplaceable part of Cheshire’s heritage, coming from all walks of life including businesses, schools, hospitals and local clubs and organisations.

It is hoped the multi-million-pound scheme will win National Lottery funding, with a Heritage Fund bid due to be decided on in December 2022. The plans already received an initial grant from the Heritage Fund in 2019.

Should the funding bid be successful, work on the Hoole site would be expected to start in autumn 2023 and the 2,439 sq m centre would be open by winter 2024.

An artist's impression of what the new History Centre in Chester would look like. Source: Planning document.

The application states: "The Cheshire Archives and Local Studies service needs a new home as the current facility in Duke Street, Chester, is no longer fit for purpose.

"Proposals have been developed to rehouse the archive in two new bespoke history centres – one in Crewe and one in Chester. This exhibition covers the History Centre proposed in Chester.

"The History Centre in Chester would provide a climate-controlled environment to house Cheshire’s archives, better display them and make them more accessible to the public.

"Key features would include:

• Exhibitions which use the archives to chart the development of the Chester area over the past 900 years
• Access to Cheshire’s archives, books, maps and other collections for research, learning and enjoyment, with staff and volunteers on hand to help
• A large event space for exhibitions, workshops and talks."

The building entrance would be on Lightfoot Street and the look of the building would mirror similar developments nearby such as Waitrose and the Lead Shot tower.

It would be expected that the building would have about 10 staff, plus volunteers, inside it at any given typical time.

The two-storey building would see public have access on the ground floor, while the archive area is proposed for the first floor with climate-controlled conditions that better preserve the archives than the present building in Duke Street.

The Chester Enterprise Centre site in April 2009, as seen from Lightfoot Street, Hoole. Picture: Google.

A small, long-since-disused building in the North West of the site, would be demolished as part of the redevelopment works.

As a result of the large collection of archives contained within the proposed History Centre, the majority of the building’s façade would be a blank windowless box, which is necessary to maintain the stable environmental conditions required inside.

The Chester Enterprise Centre site after a fire largely destroyed the building in December 2010. Picture: Google.

It is expected the 'Cheshire's Archives: A story shared' project would help create around 19 new full-time jobs for Chester and Crewe.

Additional jobs are likely to be created, a planning statement says, through the visitors attracted to the History Centre (whose off-site visitor expenditure will create jobs in other local businesses) and by incurring additional operating expenditure which will create employment in the supply chain. Significant employment opportunities would also be created during the construction phase of the development.

The former Chester Entrprise Centre site after the building had been demolished and largely left untouched in the following years. Google picture taken in 2022.