Houses Ready to Move Into at Wavensmere Homes’ £80m Friar Gate Goods Yard in Derby

A Grade II listed landmark site in Derby city centre that shut in 1967 is preparing to welcome its first residents. An initial tranche of 31 family homes are ready to move into at Wavensmere Homes’ £80m Friar Gate Goods Yard redevelopment.  

Accessed off Uttoxeter New Road, work commenced at the 11.5-acre (4.96Ha) historic site in October 2024. Alongside the 276 new build homes under construction, the vast Grade II listed Bonded Warehouse and Engine House buildings are being reanimated into over 110,000 sq ft of commercial space.

Construction is at various stages for the majority of the 227 two- and three-bedroom houses. A four-storey apartment building containing 49 apartments will also reinstate the lost streetscape of the Stafford Street frontage. The full redevelopment, restoration and construction programme is anticipated to complete by the end of 2028.

James Dickens, managing director of Wavensmere Homes, said: “Regenerating Friar Gate Goods Yard after nearly six decades of dereliction, urban decay and extensive fire damage, holds great symbolic importance in Derby’s ongoing renaissance.  We have already spent £30m on site works and construction to be at the major milestone we’ve reached today – welcoming the first new residents. This is in addition to purchasing the land and funding the extensive design and planning process.

“As you approach Derby city centre, Friar Gate is a huge historic landmark and we are excited to see the ripple effect our investment could bring about in the wider area. The fine attention to detail and our emphasis on quality placemaking will see this £80m project become a nationally important trophy asset for the city.”

Wavensmere Homes has already sold 180 houses off-plan at Friar Gate Goods Yard. Prices for the next available plots start from £280,000, with completion dates falling in December 2027.

The designs for the two- and three-bedroom townhouses are bespoke. Curved and terraced street scenes honour the beauty and vista of the Bonded Warehouse, while incorporating a range of energy saving technologies and strategies. Each EPC A-rated house benefits from an air source heat pump, alongside solar PV panels and an EV charging port.

The painstaking restoration of the 19th Century Bonded Warehouse and Engine House will deliver a total of 111,275 sq ft of flexible offices, health and fitness space, a restaurant/café, together with a regional sales centre for Birmingham-headquartered Wavensmere Homes. Extensive new areas of open space, including pocket parks are also being created.

The elevated area adjacent to Friar Gate Bridge will become a new multi-purpose public realm and community space, with retention of some of the original railway arch facades. New vehicular, pedestrian and cycle access are being created at various points around the site, from Uttoxeter New Road, Great Northern Way, and Friar Gate, with the Mick Mack cycling route also to be extended.

The site sits just outside the Friar Gate Conservation Area, which features notable Georgian townhouses with high-quality brickwork and fine architectural detailing. The Friar Gate Goods Yard was intended as the main goods depot for the Great Northern Railway line, to handle coal, livestock, timber, and metals. Designed in 1870, and entering operation in 1878, the Bonded Warehouse building contained extensive warehouse space and offices. It was used as a store for the American Army in WWII to house ammunition and other supplies.

The Engine House was also built for the Railway by Kirk & Randall of Sleaford. It is Italianate in style and built from Welsh slate. The Engine House supplied power to the hydraulic lifts and capstans at the Bonded Warehouse. The site first became derelict in 1967, and overtime became overgrown and fell into a poor state of repair. An arson attack took place at the Goods Yard in 2020, which exposed the whole inner iron structure of the two historic buildings.

Derby’s array of city centre amenities and attractions are within a five-to-10-minute walk of the site, with Derby Train Station being 1.5 miles away. Several bus routes are located along the boundary roads to the site on Friar Gate and Uttoxeter New Road.

Interested parties for the commercial or residential aspects of the scheme can register their details via Wavensmere Homes’ website.