coney street riverside, York by brown + company architects

coney street riverside

Creating a welcoming and vibrant city centre destination through the regeneration of one of the most important historic streets in York, Enhancing York’s unique character by creatively linking the riverside to Coney Street and opening up access for public use. This is an ambitious comprehensive mixed use masterplan incorporating extensive public realm, retail, leisure and student accommodation.

The scheme was approved at committee in late 2024.

Team: Neil Brown, Rob Miller, Toby Harling

Rendering of a modern multi-story brick building with large windows, located next to a landscaped pedestrian area with trees, benches, and people walking and sitting outside, in a city setting.

A modern multi-story building with commercial spaces on the ground floor, surrounded by pedestrians, trees, and outdoor seating, under a partly cloudy sky during daytime.

People walking and sitting along a riverside promenade with buildings, trees, and a bridge in the background.

A modern apartment complex with brick and glass facades, featuring multiple levels, arched entrances, and a courtyard with people walking and sitting.

Architectural site plan showing proposed construction area highlighted in beige within an urban environment, with surrounding buildings and a nearby body of water.

An architectural illustration of a cityscape with buildings, a river, green parks, and pathways. The scene includes a large building with a green roof, adjacent smaller buildings, and a bridge over the river.

An exploded architectural drawing showing a multi-level building with four distinct sections: Riversde at the bottom, a courtyard above it, an intermediate section with various colored spaces, and the upper floors at the top with four zones labeled 2, 3, and 4. The drawing includes labels for streets and areas like Coney Street and a courtyard.

Architectural wooden scale model of a city with buildings, a river flowing through, and a bridge.

The site consists of 19-33 Coney Street and 39 Coney Street to 2 Spurriergate and includes 4 listed buildings and two buildings of Merit. The main drivers for the development were to reinstate viable retail to Coney Street and to open up access to the riverside.
At ground floor the requirement was to provide small retail units to Coney Street, reflecting the historic footprint of the street and responding to market requirements for units suitable for small, independent retailers. To the riverside the brief was to provide leisure units that could serve and animate a new riverside public park. The brief for the upper floors was to sensitively repurpose the listed buildings and to incorporate into residential use, residential, hotel and holiday accommodation were all carefully considered before student accommodation was confirmed as the preferred use. The overriding principle for the development is that it should be accessible for all and we worked closely alongside access and transport consultants to ensure that this requirement was met.
This is a complex site within the Central Conservation Area of York. The development area contains 4 listed buildings, 2 buildings of Merit and is in close proximity to a number of other listed buildings and buildings of importance. There is a varied level change of approximately 2.5 to 3 metres from Coney Street down to the existing built river bank level. This level change gives the opportunity to create leisure frontage at a lower ground floor level, facing the river but also provides a challenge in creating accessible public realm which can connect the two levels. There are key views from Lendal and Ouse bridge into the city and the development of the mass and height of the proposals, specifically facing onto the river was driven predominantly in response to the sensitivity of these views.
Our design will reestablish the primacy of Coney Street within York by creating small retail units, reflecting the historic shop sizes which are appropriate for today’s thriving independent retail offer. Our proposals sensitively restore historic shopfronts and create modern insertions to reanimate the important facades along Coney Street. We have incorporated the existing site levels to create a new, welcoming, accessible public open space linking Coney Street and the river. This public open space reflects the historic water lanes that once connected Coney Street with the river and re-establishes one such historic lane. The full extent of the riverside within the development boundary will be accessible for all and the landscape design cleverly integrates leisure and public spaces to ensure that this space will be used by families, locals, visitors and leisure users alike. The proposed new buildings along the riverside and fronting Waterloo Place respond to the riverside context to create two distinct, contemporary buildings which will contribute positively to their important setting.