Student plans approved for former Mecca bingo site in York

Olympian Homes put forward the plans, working with the owners of the site Grantside and North Star, following the closure of the bingo club on Fishergate in York in March last year.

The proposals include 276 student bedrooms, landscaping and bicycle parking.

To celebrate the previous heritage on the site, the new building will be called Rialto House, after the famous cinema and venue that was on the site before it was demolished to make way for the bingo hall.

The Rialto attracted famous stars including the Beatles and Cilla Black in its heyday.

The planning application was heard in December and, following comments from City of York Council’s Planning Committee, significant changes were made including relocating the main entrance of the building, reducing a substation in height and including more bicycle parking in the plans.

Members of the project team include GWP Architecture, DPP Planning Consultants, Curtins, Vitec Weber Lenihan, Apex Consulting Engineers, Social Vision and Royal Pilgrim Communications.

George Downes from Olympian Homes said: “These plans will regenerate this underutilised, unattractive brownfield site into a high-quality new student community.

“Over many months we have worked closely with council officers and other key stakeholders and the design has been improved greatly as a result, especially through recent revisions following feedback from the planning committee.

“We look forward to commencing works onsite later this year whilst continuing working with the local community and remaining a long-term stakeholder within the city.”

He added: “We will be targeting a net carbon neutral build on this project which we believe is an important commitment to help combat climate change. We successfully achieved this in Leeds on our 752 bedroom student development Altus House with our contractor RG Group.”