Call for action on 'ugly' shopfronts as council begins enforcement action on phone shop on Ivegate

The call for businesses to better respect the city’s historic buildings was made after Bradford Council announced it will be taking enforcement action to try to restore a Victorian shopfront that was torn down to make way for a modern phone shop.

The former Arensberg’s Jewellers on Ivegate, one of the city’s oldest streets, was at the centre of a storm last year when leaseholder Mohammed Afzaal removed the traditional Victorian features and replaced it with a modern glass frontage.

He submitted a retrospective application for this frontage, which was refused in April, with the council pointing out the building was in a conservation area.

The Council has told the Telegraph & Argus that due to the fact no work had been done in the months since then to restore the shop front, it would now be taking enforcement action to legally pressure Mr Afzaal to take action.

The head of Bradford Civic Society, Si Cunningham, said the damage done to the Ivegate store was part of a wider problem in the city centre, where “ugly” shop designs threatened to spoil some of Bradford’s most attractive buildings.

He said: “I welcome the council’s decision to take enforcement action but hope it goes beyond a gesture fine. The leaseholder or whoever should be made to put back the fixtures that were removed.

“There was a recent high profile case where the Westminster council made unscrupulous developers rebuild an historic pub brick by brick after they’d illegally flattened it, so there’s a precedent.

“Unfortunately this isn’t an isolated incident. Ugly design is reaching pandemic levels in BD1’s beautiful conservation areas. We need to start calling it out more often. We have a city centre design guide – it’s just not being used.”

He said there were many examples in the city centre of buildings that had impressive features, but were let down by poorly thought-out street level shop fronts. He added: “There have definitely been some unsympathetic designs in recent years. There are lots of examples in the city. The top end of Darley Street has some of the worst offenders, most of the buildings there are fantastic, but some of the stuff at street level is horrible. I’d encourage people to raise their eyes and see just how amazing these buildings are beyond the poor shop fronts.

“It might not necessarily be illegal, but it is definitely not something we should be promoting. The problem is when people assume they can do this sort of thing without any consequence. We need to change that culture, we have to make it so that if people take on a heritage building they are able to get advice on how to deal with it. We have a city centre design guide, but a lot of people just don’t use it. If everyone starts doing good designs that take into account the buildings, then the ugly buildings will stand out like a sore thumb.”

However he said the Council did seem to be taking a tougher stance on such shop fronts in recent months.

The shop was established in 1860, and many original features had been retained in the premises’ later years as a branch of the pawnbrokers Herbert Brown.

On the enforcement action, a Council spokesman said: “The retrospective planning application for the new shop front was refused as it did not achieve the high standard of design and used inappropriate construction materials.

“As no alternative plans have been submitted that are considered to be acceptable, enforcement action will be taken.”

Referring to the comments from the Civic Society, the spokesman added: “Owners and occupiers need to take responsibility for the preservation of these heritage buildings. Our Planning Department provides lots of advice and guidance about what designs are appropriate for those wanting to make alterations to their buildings and will enforce this where necessary.”

The T&A visited the shop to speak to Mr Afzaal about whether he would be restoring the original frontage, but a reporter was told he was currently abroad and could not be contacted.