Altrincham’s iconic Post Office building is to be relaunched as a vintage tearoom and a home for up to 18 independent businesses.
The ground floor of the Stamford New Road property, originally built in 1899 and one of the town’s most architecturally impressive buildings, has been boarded up since 2006 when the Post Office closed down.
But the 4,700 sq ft space is to be refurbished and reopened as The Old Post Rooms, with all but one of the independent businesses at The Emporium on The Downs moving en masse to take up trading units. The first and second floors are already occupied as offices.
A 10-year lease on the property has been taken on by local retail entrepreneur Catherine Matthews, who is hoping to open to the public by the end of February – assuming Trafford Council approve the plans next month.
Matthews, a Liverpudlian who has lived in Altrincham for 35 years, will run the tearooms herself and sub-let up to 18 units in the building.
She said the traders from the Emporium – including Delve Furniture Revamp & Handmade Gifts, Mr Squimps Shop, Little House Interiors, Plum and Pigeon, Raindrops and Roses, Timperley Tea, Steve Entwistle Photography and The Odd Glass – had been “blown away” when given a tour of their new base. Ladies boutique Madam Butterfly, which was formerly at the Emporium before opening a standalone shop on Greenwood Street, will also be taking a unit in the building.
Below: All but one of the traders from The Emporium on The Downs will be moving to The Old Post Rooms
Matthews also made an approach to some of the vintage traders at Altrincham Market and says it should be a “no-brainer” for local independent traders.
“You’ll be in one of the most characterful buildings in Altrincham on what is going to be – if it isn’t already – the busiest road in Altrincham,” she said. “It’s also between the new bus station and the hospital and close to Tesco, so footfall is high.
“Location is paramount when you’re trading and it has that in abundance. It’s an opportunity for small businesses who don’t want to make a long term commitment.”
Units are available on three-month leases at a starting rate of £110 per week – inclusive of insurances, heating, rates and rent – rising to £150 per week for units by the building’s large windows.
Matthews said: “I’ve run my own businesses most of my working life, and although it gives you lots of sleepless nights, it gives you so much satisfaction and that adrenaline rush. I just think that this is such a great opportunity not only for me, but for many other people and especially young businesses. I know what it was like and how scared I was starting my very first business. My first lease was for three years and that seemed a lifetime.”
Refurbishment of the ground floor space is currently being overseen by the landlord, including new flooring, a repaint, plumbing for the tearooms and new French doors to lead to a courtyard space at the back.
Matthews said the 40-cover tearooms will be “very quaint, quirky and beautiful”: “There will be elements of Downton Abbey and Alice in Wonderland with different coloured tables, chandeliers and tea served on trolleys,” she explained. “When people walk through the doors on the day of the opening, I’m hoping they’re going to go “wow!”
Sam Little, the owner of Little House Interiors, said the Emporium traders were looking forward to moving to their new home.
“We’re all really excited about moving to the Post Office and think it’s a great opportunity,” she said. “We’ve been given other options but it’s the best position and fits in with the artisan style of what we are selling.”
Little added that the other options included a premises in the Stamford Quarter and an offer from a potential buyer from their existing home on The Downs, but that they’d decided to stick with the Post Office move.
All traders at the Emporium will stop trading on Christmas Eve, effectively signalling the end of the former Traders’ Outlet operation that was once held up as a pioneering example of a new business incubator. J and N Wray Ltd, the company behind it, went into receivership in mid-October.
The former Post Office, part of the Mossburn Buildings, was built in 1899 when developer John Henderson Brown commissioned local architect John Macnamara. The same team was responsible for many of the finest buildings in Altrincham, including in 1905 the Station Buildings, now Stamford House.
Below: The former Post Office, soon to be known as The Old Post Rooms
