Plans submitted to transform iconic former department store

An iconic former department store that traded for more than 180 years before its closure could be transformed into a new cultural and community hub with a library and exhibition space, under new plans.

Austins, in the Diamond area of Londonderry, closed more than 10 years ago after the business went into liquidation.

Last year, the building, one of Derry's most recognisable landmarks, was bought by the Inner City Trust with the aim of restoring the listed building back to its former glory.

The application will now go before Derry City and Strabane District Council for consideration.

The Inner City Trust bought the building back in 2025 after receiving a grant of £1.2m from Stormont's Department for Communities and also received almost £0.5m from the National Lottery Heritage Fund to pay for explanatory works for the historic building.

Under the proposed plans, a rear extension is also proposed for the Austins building, spanning the first to fourth floors, alongside a range of internal and external alterations.

The plans would also relocate what was the existing café from the third floor to the top floor with views overlooking the city centre.

Spread over five storeys and 25,000 sq ft, the Austins building dominates its corner of the Diamond and was once synonymous with shopping in Derry for almost two centuries.

In 1830 - some 20 years before Harrods of London began trading and more than a quarter of a century before Macy's of New York opened its doors - Thomas Austin came to Derry and opened a drapery shop on a city centre corner.

At its height of popularity, Austins had become a cornerstone of shopping, attracting generations of customers and becoming one of the city's best-known retail landmarks.

As shopping habits changed in the early part of the new century, Austins came under pressure, posting significant losses in 2011 and 2012.

In November 2014, the listed building was sold to the City Hotel Group. The receiver then sold the trading side of the business.

When it closed in 2016, more than 50 workers lost their jobs and the building has lay empty ever since.

The Inner City Trust was founded in the 1970s, with the then-Church of Ireland Bishop of Derry James Mehaffey and Catholic Bishop of Derry Edward Daly among its founding trustees, and was designed to inject commercial and social life into the city centre after a decade of the Troubles.

It has, in the decades since, developed some of the city's most recognisable buildings, including the Tower Museum, the Tower Hotel, the Bishop's Gate Hotel.

The Austins building is not the only historic building earmarked for regeneration and re-purposing by the Inner City Trust.

More than £1.4m in funding was announced in August earlier this year by the Department for Communities (DfC) to secure the future of the former Danske Bank building in Londonderry.

The loan, from the department's North West Regeneration Fund, allowed the Inner City Trust to purchase the building in Shipquay Square, which was built between 1860 and 1879.

The plans are to bring the building back into commercial use, with the project aimed at supporting the regeneration of the city centre.