Stockport building to be given new lease of life

An application has been submitted to renovate the grade-two listed Winter’s building on Little Underbank in Stockport.

Winter’s stands on a 1,200 sq ft site and has been vacant since January 2018.

The interior of the building, which was most recently a wine bar, is to be renovated under the plans submitted by Stockport Council. A section of roof will be removed and replaced.

In May 2018, award-winning South African chef Ernst Van Zyl had planned to open a fine dining restaurant on the site but his attempts to crowdfund £100,000 generated a sum of £800 and the plans were scrapped in September 2018.

The proposed restaurant had the working name Klok, an Afrikaans word that makes reference to the building’s rare Sainsbury Brothers clock, believed to be the only one of its kind in the North West.

A report by the Cumbria Clock Company, included in the planning submission, states that the clock “is of great horological importance” due to its three striking jacks which sound the bell.  The jacks are mechanical statues of a soldier, a sailor and father time.

The report adds that there are only a small number of striking jacks still operated by mechanical clock movement left in the UK and suggests that it be removed completely during the renovation works in order to protect it.

Donald Insall Associates is the architect for the project and work is expected to complete this year.