Preston Tithebarn redevelopment

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The Tithebarn redevelopment project is a planned £650 million regeneration initiative, planned by Preston City Council and managed by property giant Grosvenor. It is dependent upon a number of requirements (such as the re-location of the Bus Station as the project requires its demolition. Completion is forecast for 2013, narrowly missing the next Preston Guild in 2012.

In 2000, opposition to the demolition of the Bus Station led to an application for listed building status by English Heritage. Preston Borough Council (as it then was) opposed the application.

Putting forward the case for a smaller terminus, a report, commissioned by the council and Grosvenor in 2000, stated that "buses arriving and leaving the bus station have very low bus occupancy rates indicating that passengers alight and board elsewhere in the town centre. The bus station car park similarly suffers from the poor pedestrian linkages." ^[1] Listing was subsequently rejected. ^[2]

On October 11, 2005, Preston City Council and developer Grosvenor Holdings signed an agreement to go ahead with the Tithebarn redevelopment project, which calls for the demolition of the current bus station despite it being an excellent example of 1960s brutalist architecture.

In January 2007, the department store John Lewis confirmed it will anchor the development with a 230,000 sq ft department store however the project also includes a new cinema, almost 90 new shops, offices, homes, public spaces, a new hotel and revitalised markets. ^[3]

1. ^ Preston Town Centre Analysis Précis document (pdf). Retrieved on January 31, 2007.
2. ^ Department of Culture, Media and Sport: Minister's Decision on Central Bus Station and Car Park, Preston (html). The Save Preston Bus Station Campaign. Retrieved on January 31, 2007.
3. ^ Lancashire Evening Post (January 25, 2007). Store puts city in retail premiership. Lancashire Evening Post.