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Marks and Spencer’s Purley store set for planning green light

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EXCLUSIVE: After an 18-month planning hiatus, proposals to adapt a heritage building on the Brighton Road are about to be granted permission by the council. By STEVEN DOWNES

Marks and Spencer have confirmed that the retailers’ proposals to convert the former Unigate dairy and offices on Brighton Road into a Foodhall and “creative enterprise hub” are “still progressing”, with planning approval from Croydon Council expected very soon.

Developers unveiled their proposals for the locally listed former Milk and More buildings in June 2023, with M&S signing a contract with developers for the project in an area – Purley – where they have long wanted a presence.

Marks and Spencer continue (for now, at least), to have a major presence with their store in the Whitgift Centre in Croydon town centre, but what is proposed for Brighton Road will be closer in its style and offering to the Foodhall on the Purley Way industrial estate which opened two years ago.

“M&S have long wanted to have a store in Purley. This store will complement the existing stores in Croydon, not cannibalise them,” a source said when the scheme was first unveiled.

Milk and makeover: after Muller moved to Merton, the Milk and More buildings have been empty

Some 120 jobs would be created, with 20 “affordable” studio spaces also developed on site for creative businesses, while the original proposals included 70 off-street car parking spaces on the site at 823-825 Brighton Road, close to the notoriously busy Purley Oaks roundabout and Purley Oaks council dump.

The site features three buildings with locally listed frontages “currently in a poor state of repair”, according to the developers. “These will be retained, carefully restored and brought into public use,” they say.

Sources close to the scheme suggest that after considerable discussion, the proposals will be granted planning permission by council planners under delegated authority. It will not be brought to the council’s planning committee.

Since the original proposal was submitted, almost 100 new and revised documents have been submitted for approval, with alterations to those original 2023 plans, following prolonged discussions with Croydon’s notoriously slow planning department.

All change: the developers had to make significant changes to their original proposals, submitting almost 100 new architect drawings and reports

Croydon planners expressed “strong concerns” with the proposals for the “creative hub”, saying that there were issues with the “usability and quality of the space proposed”. They said: “It needs to be demonstrated that the accommodation is fit for the proposed use to make it a desirable for potential future users.”

They were particularly concerned about traffic stopping on Purley Park Road, and suggested a reduction in the number of parking bays on the site to make space to avoid this.

Planners also raised issues with the loss of four (unoccupied) residential units on the site and proposals that were seen as causing “substantial harm to the heritage asset” – the 1930s-built dairy delivering base. They even quibbled over the size of the signage for the superstore on a busy arterial route.

Developers Grove Property had purchased the site from Muller with vacant possession, and struck a deal with M&S to deliver the scheme almost three years ago. The retailers are keen to move in to the Purley store as soon as possible, according to a source. There had been hopes expressed that demolition and construction work on site would have begun in 2024.

Grove Property, based in fashionable Worlds End Studios in Chelsea, describe themselves as a “boutique property company”. The Purley scheme has been designed by 3W Architecture.

“The planning application (23/04071/FUL) is still live and it is expected to be determined imminently, now that there is a Section 106 ready for signature,” a source told Inside Croydon. Section 106 agreements are effectively a levy on private developers to pay for local infrastructure, paid in return for getting a go-ahead on their commercial scheme.

“M&S remain committed to the scheme and we look forward to working with Croydon Council to expedite the discharge of the imposed planning conditions, so that the scheme can be delivered without further delay,” the source said.

“We are excited to deliver both the M&S Foodhall and the cultural and creative enterprise hub to the rear of the site, which are expected to bring forward significant local employment opportunities.”

The developers are also suggesting that the new M&S store will be “a catalyst for regeneration” in the area.


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