A catering training facility could be created in Bishop Auckland as plans have been submitted to Durham County Council to convert a high street shop.

The plans involve the conversion from a shop with an office above in Newgate Street to a mixed-use catering education facility on the ground floor, with commercial restaurant and retail space.

The upper floors will accommodate training support, job creation and a business start-up space.

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The building owner is working in partnership with Bishop Auckland College who is developing a catering education facility on the ground floor, with a fully operational commercial restaurant and small retail space.

This work involves the removal of modern partitioning, lay-in grid ceilings, teapoints and toilets and the replacement with a fit-for-purpose training, employment, offices and retail facility with an active restaurant use on the ground floor.

The upper floors will provide further training support, job creation and business start-up space.

This will require an internal re-planning and fit out of the interior with a small extension to house the new lift.

The building has been heavily adapted internally and there are three key periods of change.

The first was at the time of the second-floor extension (1909), the second was at the time of the "McIntyres" shop re-fit (1930) and the third was at the time of the internal retail extension in the 1990s.

The third has been the most damaging with the removal of the majority of the internal fabric on the ground and first floor and the re-building of the rear wall on the second floor.

The existing staircase is to be retained and adapted, down stands and shutters are to be removed and the lobby reconfigured to suit the proposed lift access.

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The building is listed and the majority of the items described in the 1993 listing description remain intact.

The building looked to be capable of a sensitive repair with the restoration of the larger format glazing to the main shopfront returning this element to its former glory.

Bishop Auckland College provides a range of vocational courses and apprenticeships, including hospitality and catering.