The first grant allocated from Goole Town Deal’s £4 million Property Activation Fund is being used to help renovate and enhance the appearance of long-established retail premises occupying a prominent town centre location.

A grant of almost £17,000 has been awarded to Brown & Gold, which bought the Arthur Read Jeweller store at 7 Boothferry Road from its previous owner just over a year ago. The business operates a chain of jewellery stores across the North of England and its owner, Christopher Brown, made the decision to invest in Goole town centre when the previous owner of Arthur Read Jeweller retired. Trading in Goole as Christopher Brown Jewellers, Mr Brown has since ploughed almost £40,000 of his own funds into the first phase of a major renovation project and is investing a further £25,000 in the second phase, £16,886 of which has come from the Property Activation Fund. 

Once part of a cinema, the premises has been a jewellery shop since 1930, although the ornate Italian mosaic tiles on the exterior and art-deco style windows and door were added in the 1950s.

Mr Brown explained: “When I took on the premises, the shop front was tired and crumbling and the internal decor dated back to the 1970s. I wanted to bring the shop back to its former glory, restoring and embracing its retro feel while bringing it into the 21st century as a modern and progressive retail destination. This site is a pivotal part of Goole town centre; part of its history and a very important part of its future.”

Mr Brown decided to submit an application to the Property Activation Fund after the first phase of work to restore the shop, which began last May, ended up costing almost £20,000 more than he’d originally envisaged.

He explained: “When we began opening out the shop and removing the internal dividing walls to increase the retail area, we uncovered antiquated wiring systems and the need to increase the expenditure on the infrastructure of the premises way beyond my budgeted estimate. You don’t know quite what you’re going to find until you actually start work on a project in a building like this.

“This property is in the heart of the Goole Town Deal regeneration zone, adjacent to the soon-to-be redeveloped Market Hall and opposite the iconic Clock Tower. I decided to apply to the Property Activation Fund in the hope that it might help us meet the spiralling costs because I believe that our new-look shop will brighten up and improve the town centre and bring destination shoppers to this historic part of the town.”

Mr Brown said that he was delighted to hear that his grant application has been successful, adding: “Rather than having to scale back our renovation project, this grant had made it possible for us to proceed with all of our planned improvement work.”

Phil Jones, Chair of the Goole Town Deal Board, said: “It’s really pleasing to see businesses like Brown & Gold investing in our town and to know that the first grant we’ve awarded will help them give this well-known, historic property a much-needed makeover. 

“Alongside the other Goole Town Deal-funded projects, particularly the Market Hall, Public Realm and Station Hub schemes, the Property Activation Fund will play an important role in enhancing the way the town centre looks and feels, which, in turn, will boost the economy by increasing footfall.”

The Property Activation Fund aims to encourage property owners, developers and tenants to carry out improvements to buildings in Goole town centre and bring empty or under-used sites back into use. It will make the town centre a more attractive and appealing place to invest in and do business by restoring, refurbishing and, ultimately, reinventing buildings that are empty, under used or in a poor state of repair. 

A total of £4.175 million will be used to help transform buildings and sites within the town centre and this is being allocated to applicants in three different size brackets – small (up to £20,000); medium (£20,000 to £314,999); and large (above £315,000).