Coney Street Riverside

Coney Street has a long history as an important thoroughfare through the city, and is identified in the Conservation Area Appraisal as a key part of the “Central Shopping District” character area. It’s name, a corruption of “King Street” is believed to reflect its history as an approach to the palace of the tenth century Northumbrian Kings, located within what is now Museum Gardens.

The river has long been a key transport link into the city. Over time the western and eastern banks developed distinct characters. The western bank was shaped by industrial development and movement and housed industries including breweries, cocoa works and warehouses. In contrast to this the eastern bank developed in response to the prominence of Coney Street and the townhouses and coaching inns that had large gardens facing onto the river. It has been a long held aspiration of the city to improve connections to and alongside the river, as such our proposals include a meandering, interconnected route between Ouse bridge and the Guildhall.

The proposals on Coney Street are derived from the following key principles:

- Restore the Historic footprint of listed buildings
- Create new Primary Street to the southern edge of the Masterplan
- Create appropriate routes into Secondary and Tertiary public spaces
- Restore and Enhance the existing listed buildings, including shopfronts
- Create infill elements at nos. 29-31 and 43 Coney Street

The proposals were developed following analysis of Coney Street and the adjacent streets, including where appropriate historic analysis. As such the proposals retain and enhance the character of Coney Street. A key heritage benefit of the proposals is to restore the listed buildings on Coney Street, the proposals for the shop-fronts is an important factor in this restoration. The proposals assess the existing shop fronts on an individual basis and propose intervention on a tiered basis with reference to the Conservation area.

The proposals for the riverside are driven and defined by the following key concepts:

- Fronting onto the river (not extensions of the Coney Street properties)
- Appropriate for the immediate and wider river context
- Building footprint defined by public realm, historic plots, existing buildings, external levels and proposed use
- Building mass responds to views and context including the Minster and listed buildings
- Upper floor use defines the footprint through requirement for outlook, daylight and external amenity space
- Proposals orientated to existing road, river, views and daylight

There are distinct built character zones along the riverside between Lendal and Ouse bridges and the design of Zones 03 and 04 respond to these. The form of the buildings responds to the character zones, enhances key views across the site and creates appropriately scaled public open spaces and connections between Coney Street and the riverside.

Following extensive collaboration with York City Council, the general public and other interested stakeholders a planning application was submitted in December 2022 to York City Council.

Watch this space for progress on the application in 2023.