This is what a heritage chief would like to see happen to Chesterfield’s former Victoria Centre

Mystery surrounds what will happen to the prominent building on Knifesmithgate, nearly five years since its closure.

MORE: Dunkin’ and Taco Bell coming to Chesterfield as town bounces back from pandemic

Over the years, it was a shopping centre, a cinema and a dance hall.

Philip Riden, chair of Chesterfield and District Civic Society, told the Derbyshire Times he wanted to see new life breathed into the site.

He said: “It is certainly fair to say that the civic society would like to see the building brought back into beneficial use and, given the changing character of Knifesmithgate, I would say the best option is conversion into flats.

“All I can really say on behalf of the society is that we hope a future can be found for the building.

“It should certainly not be demolished but until the present owner either sells it to someone who can do something with it, or does something himself, it is difficult to see what can be done.

“As far as I can see, the building of which it forms part is not listed, although I think it’s in a Conservation Area.”

According to Land Registry documents, a London-based business called Metropolitan Properties Company (FGC) Ltd owns the former Victoria Centre, which shut in March 2017.

The Derbyshire Times contacted the company asking if it had any plans for the building – but no comment was given.

The firm’s latest accounts state: “The company generally holds its properties for the long term in order to generate rental income and capital appreciation although in the right circumstances any property could be available for sale.”

Mr Riden said: “I am afraid planning law is remarkably weak in not having any means of forcing private owners of buildings to look after them.

“I doubt if the council wants to buy it; otherwise there is very little a local planning authority can do about privately-owned buildings whose owners leave them standing empty and deteriorating.”

Chesterfield Borough Council has been approached for comment.

Mr Riden gave a brief history of the former Victoria Centre.

“What later became the Victoria shopping centre (the arcade of cheap shops behind the Knifesmithgate frontage) was originally a cinema (the Victoria, from 1957 the Gaumont) with what were then the usual appendages of a dance hall and café,” he said.

“It was the smallest of the three town centre cinemas and the first to close (I saw Zulu there, probably around 1964).

“The whole frontage is one of the grandest of the black-and-white buildings of the 1920s in Chesterfield and is a very important feature of the street scene in Knifesmithgate.”

When the property closed, Roy Knowles, owner of the Victoria Café inside the centre, told the Derbyshire Times: “A lot of my customers are very sad to lose this historic part of Chesterfield.”

Commenting on our Facebook page, Sue Loveland said: “I had some fantastic times there.”

Robert Pettifer added: “It’s a good location for modern town centre apartments to encourage some life back into the town.”

MORE: Task force brought in to help revitalise Chesterfield town centre

Support your Derbyshire Times by becoming a digital subscriber. You will see 70 per cent fewer ads on stories, meaning faster load times and an overall enhanced user experience. Visit www.derbyshiretimes.co.uk/subscriptions