Derby approves Howells' £100m Assembly Rooms regeneration plan

en.Wedoany.com Reported - Derby City Council yesterday granted a key planning condition, advancing a £100m mixed-use development proposal by Howells. The project will replace the Assembly Rooms, a historic brutalist music venue in Derby city centre that has stood vacant for over a decade.

The Assembly Rooms has existed in various forms dating back to 1714; the current building was completed in 1977, designed by Casson, Conder & Partners, the practice co-founded by modernist architect Hugh Casson. It was once Derby's premier music venue, hosting performances by The Smiths, The Clash, Oasis, Elton John, Ozzy Osborne, Iron Maiden, Manic Street Preachers, and The Specials. In 2014, a fire in a neighbouring multi-storey car park damaged its ventilation system, and the building has remained vacant ever since; in 2021, the Twentieth Century Society added it to its list of endangered heritage buildings.

The Derby Market Place Regeneration project was designed for Vinci UK Developments and its sister company Ion Developments. The council has now given the scheme its final green light, confirming that main construction work will commence immediately after demolition, thereby avoiding the site being left vacant; demolition work is scheduled to begin early next year.

Planning officers said the redevelopment of the two-hectare site aims to repair the social, environmental, and economic impact of prolonged vacancy, reversing the "lack of activity and vitality" in Derby's historic core. The site is bounded to the north by the Grade I-listed Derby Cathedral, to the west by the medieval Iron Gate street, to the south by the Grade II-listed Guildhall, and to the east by the Grade II-listed Magistrates Court.

Under the plans, the Assembly Rooms building and the multi-storey car park will be demolished and replaced by a five-storey flexible events venue named Derby Made, a six-storey office building named Derby Works, and an eight-storey, 160-room four-star hotel.

The scheme also includes a new pedestrian route between the Market Place and Full Street, extending towards Cathedral Green, alongside substantial new public space around an existing Grade II-listed war memorial in the Market Place.

Earlier this year, when planning officers recommended approval of the project, they stated that the scheme's "significant" public benefits—including revitalising an underused area of the city centre and providing new high-quality workspace—would outweigh the less than "substantial" level of harm to surrounding heritage assets. The project team includes landscape architect BDP, planning consultant Turley, transport and heritage consultant WSP, MEP consultant Cundall, civil engineering consultant CCE, and GIA for daylight analysis.