The Rock – Scheme History

Date published: 16 July 2010

In the 1960s, Bury typified the country’s approach to town planning, a large central area of the town centre made way for a modern shopping precinct. Later enclosed, the Millgate shopping centre linked into Bury market and more recently the bus/metro interchange.

The central retail area formerly included the main residential homes of wealthy businessmen around Union Square and included the site of the Royal Theatre, later to become the Royal Cinema in 1954, which was one of the first picture houses in the country. Today the main town centre is centred around three principle streets: Market Street, Bolton Street and The Rock – Bury’s High Street.

At the beginning of the decade, prior to development, the site consisted of low grade warehousing, existing retail units fronting onto The Rock, a medical centre, surface car parks and the former United Reform Church site severed from the town centre by Rochdale Road. The development site also encompassed a nightclub, Hornby Buildings and the pedestrian section of The Rock that formed the traditional high street.

The Rock Triangle site on which ‘The Rock’ is developed was originally identified as a potential extension to the town centre and proposals for a retail development on the site were supported in the ‘Bury But Better’ Bury Town Centre Vision and Development Strategy (2003).

An outline planning approval in April 2006 for a mixed use development on the site included retail, leisure, food and drink, office and residential uses was subsequently reworked and adopted by the Council in its Development Framework for the site in 2005. BDP’s revised scheme approved in December 2007, commenced on site in May 2008 by contractor Laing O’Rourke.

In January 2010, developer Thornfield was placed in administration. Joint administrators at Deloitte appointed Hammerson, the FTSE100 property company responsible for developments including Bullring in Birmingham and Highcross, Leicester, to complete and lease the scheme.