Skip to content

What next for store that once dominated city?

Davy Wilson
BBC News NI
BBC The grand Austins building in the diamond in Derry - in front of it is a tree with no leavesBBC
Austins is one of Derry's best-known buildings

In the heart of Londonderry, on a prime city centre corner, stands the building once home to the world's oldest independent department store.

In 1830 - some 20 years before Harrods of London began trading and more than a quarter of a century before Macy's of New York opened its doors - Thomas Austin came to Derry and opened a drapery shop on a city centre corner.

Over the next 180 years Austins would become synonymous with shopping in Derry.

Since the shutters came down in 2016, the grand building has lain empty – now that is set to change.

On Wednesday Communities Minister Gordon Lyons said a grant of £1.2m from his department would allow Derry's Inner City Trust to complete the purchase of the building.

A man in a blue and pink and white checked shirt, wearing black glasses and short grey hair
The Venerable Robert Miller from the Inner City Trust says work will begin 'as soon as possible'

So what next for the former department store building?

"Well that's the question isn't it?," the Venerable Robert Miller, chairman of the trust, told BBC Radio Foyle.

"Nothing is ruled out or ruled in. We have saved a building, we have rescued it, now the next stage is to work to revitalising it."

Spread over five storeys and 25,000 sq ft, the Austins building dominates its corner of the Diamond.

For generations it dominated the city's retail landscape too.

Archdeacon Miller said it was a building people in Derry feel an affinity with.

A woman in a yellow jacket and hat stands in front of a old derelict store in Derry city centre. A number of cars can be seen in the background. The woman has long blond hair and is smiling.
Liz Doherty has fond memories of Austins

Liz Doherty remembers school day lemon meringue pies in Austins café and trips to see her cousin who worked in the ladies fashion department for more than 30 years.

When Austins was in its heyday, she loved "the style of the building, the ladies fashion, the old radiators and the staircase".

"It had a beautiful atmosphere, it was so different to anywhere else. Whatever they decide to do next, like maybe a hotel, I hope they keep its old structure," she told BBC News NI.

"It really is a fantastic building, with such a sense of history to it."

A man stands outside a row of glass fronted shops , two people walk past to his right. The man is wearing a black tshirt, and is squinting to block the glare of the sun
Conor Green says redeveloping the building can give the city centre a real boost

Conor Green owns a coffee shop close to the building and told BBC News NI it has been empty for far too long.

"Whatever goes in there, I hope helps attract a lot more people, a lot more businesses into the city centre," he said.

He wants the old department store to be given a new lease of life.

"I'm thinking restaurants, cafés, maybe even a cinema," he said.

"Things that will draw people in and where they can enjoy themselves."

the ground floor of a vacant shop. the exit door is in the centre, with wooden floors and pillars close by
The building has been empty since the store closed its doors nine years ago

Archdeacon Miller said the trust knows how important the building is to the city.

"We are all mindful everyone is watching… that's good, whatever goes into it will encourage wider growth and development," he said.

Standing in front of the Austins building in Londonderry, are Helen Quigley from the Inner City Trust and Conservation architect Karl Pedersen
Conservation architect Karl Pedersen, with Helen Quigley from the Inner City Trust, says the projects is a "joyful challenge"

What is the Inner City Trust?

Founded in the 1970s, with the then-Church of Ireland Bishop of Derry James Mehaffey and Catholic Bishop of Derry Edward Daly among its founding trustees, the Inner City Trust was designed to inject commercial and social life into the city centre after a decade of the Troubles.

It has, in the decades since, developed some of the city's most recognisable buildings, including the Tower Museum, the Tower Hotel, the Bishop's Gate Hotel.

"One of our principles at the Inner City Trust is to diversify our portfolio to ensure risk is mitigated as much as possible.

"But obviously it needs to be commercially productive…and benefit the community," Archdeacon Miller said, adding that work would begin almost straight away.

"The first element of it is stabilising the building, that gives us time in our conversations as to what might come next, on the next chapter because that will affect what it looks like inside," he said.

"It is not a case of saying 'who would like to come?' It is much more strategic than that."

As shopping habits changed in the early part of the new century, Austins came under pressure, posting significant losses in 2011 and 2012.

In November 2014 the listed building was sold to the City Hotel Group.

The receiver then sold the trading side of the business.

When it closed in 2016 more than 50 workers lost their jobs.

A blue plague that hangs outside the former Austins department store in Derry denoting the year it opened and that it is the 'worlds oldest independent department store'
A blue plaque marks the store's signficance.

Conservation architect Karl Pedersen told BBC Radio Foyle's Mark Patterson Show the challenge that lay ahead was a "joyful one".

The building, he added, had been "caught just in the nick of time".

"There is a lot of the detail we will be able to restore and salvage and preserve," he said.