Rackhams Place plans would green Cherry Street and add 510 homes

Plans to redevelop the old Rackhams department store in the city centre include turning Cherry Street, a grey concrete walkway, into a wider, greener route lined with trees and courtyards.

The Rackhams Place scheme, designed by the architecture firm Gensler for Sphere Group and L&G, would demolish the 1960s building on Temple Row, which was most recently House of Fraser until it closed in June, along with 43 Temple Row and One Temple Row.

What would be built

In their place would come:

• two towers of 16 and 34 storeys containing 510 homes of mixed tenure
• a nine-storey office building with 21,000 square metres of Grade A space
• about 4,500 square metres of shops, cafes and restaurants on the ground floor
• 0.7 hectares of new and improved public space

Greening Cherry Street

Cherry Street links Cathedral Square with Corporation Street and runs alongside the old store down to the tramway, opposite Poundland. It is home to a Greggs, a McDonald's, a Starbucks and a convenience store.

The plans would widen and green the route, adding trees and courtyards. A spokesperson for Gensler said the aim was a "vibrant destination throughout the day and into the evening" with places to meet friends and spend time with colleagues.

Timetable

The public consultation closes on Friday 16 October, and residents can leave feedback on the Rackhams Place website. A planning application will then be submitted to the council later this autumn.

If permission is granted, construction could start next year, with the first buildings finished in 2030 and the whole scheme completed in 2031.

A city centre landmark

Rackhams was for decades one of Birmingham's best-known department stores, and the building on Corporation Street and Temple Row was a destination for generations of shoppers. It later traded as House of Fraser, whose closure in June left one of the biggest buildings in the city centre empty.

Department stores across the country have struggled as shopping has moved online, and many town and city centres have been left with large empty buildings that are hard to reuse. Converting or replacing them with homes, offices and smaller shops is increasingly common.

Homes in the city centre

The plans are part of a wider shift towards city centre living in Birmingham, where tens of thousands of people now live in flats around the core. Supporters say more residents bring life to the centre in the evenings and at weekends and support shops and restaurants.

Critics have questioned whether the city centre has enough family-sized and genuinely affordable homes, and whether high rents put new flats out of reach of many local workers. The number of affordable homes in the scheme is likely to be one of the main questions when the planning application is considered.