7 Market Place, Derby

Building and heritage context

7 Market Place is a Grade II listed property located in the heart of Derby’s historic city centre. Constructed circa 1910, the building is an elegant three storey Ashlar structure designed in the Renaissance Revival style, featuring finely detailed stonework and period architectural flourishes characteristic of the era. Originally built to accommodate a bank, the property retains much of its early 20th century grandeur and civic presence.

These values inform the conservation strategy for the project and sit at the heart of the commercial decision-making we support.


Project brief – from former bank to mixed-use landmark

The current project involves the conversion and adaptive reuse of 7 Market Place into:

  • Luxury apartments on the upper floors, creating high-quality city centre residential accommodation, making full use of generous ceiling heights and existing window rhythm.
  • A bar-restaurant at ground floor level, re-activating the historic banking hall and associated spaces for a contemporary hospitality use, while preserving significant internal features where they survive.


The key project objectives can be summarised as:

  • Delivering a commercially viable mixed-use scheme that responds to local market demand.
  • Respecting and enhancing the building’s listed status and contribution to the City Centre Conservation Area.
  • Aligning proposals with Historic England best practice and Derby City Council’s conservation policies, including minimum intervention, maximum retention of significant fabric and high-quality new insertions.
  • Managing the risks and costs associated with changing the use of a historic banking building to residential and hospitality, particularly around structure, services, fire strategy, acoustics and access.


Staffordshire Cost Consultants Ltd are appointed as Quantity Surveyors to underpin these ambitions with robust commercial strategy, procurement and cost management.


Our appointment and scope of service

Our commission covers the full pre- and post-contract QS service, including:

  1. Budget establishment and cost planning
    • Developing an initial cost plan for the conversion, based on evolving designs and heritage constraints.
    • Testing different levels of intervention (e.g. minimal alteration versus more invasive structural reconfiguration) against budget, value and conservation impact.
  2. Procurement and tendering
    • Shaping a procurement strategy suitable for a listed building in an urban, constrained location, with a strong emphasis on contractor experience in heritage and inner-city refurbishment.
    • Advising on the form of contract and risk allocation between client, main contractor and specialist trades.
    • Preparing tender documentation, including pricing schedules or bills of quantities that appropriately separate base build, conservation works, fit-out and risk items.
  3. Supply chain strategy
    • Establishing a robust supply chain model, identifying heritage-competent contractors and specialists in: stone and façade repair, sash window refurbishment, conservation joinery, fire doors, M&E integration in historic fabric and kitchen extraction within tight townscape constraints.
    • Ensuring that suppliers understand the constraints of listed-building work within a conservation area, including the likely need for variations driven by discoveries on site.
  4. Construction phase commercial management
    • Managing cashflow and cost recovery; reviewing and certifying contractor applications for payment.
    • Operating change control, value engineering and risk management processes.
    • Preparing regular cost reports and forecasts, advising on outturn cost and contingency.
    • Agreeing final accounts and managing retention release in line with the contract.


Across all stages, we provide commercial risk advice, particularly around the uncertainties inherent in working within an Edwardian bank shell with a complex fabric and unknowns behind finishes and historic linings.


Conservation-led scope and technical considerations

The conversion must respond to the building’s fabric and significance. From a commercial perspective, we work closely with the design and conservation team to cost and balance:

  • Façade retention and repair
  • Internal planning and structural alterations
  • Bar-restaurant integration
  • Building services and compliance


Our cost planning explicitly reflects these conservation-driven requirements, avoiding standard “new build” assumptions and ensuring sufficient allowance for heritage-grade work, surveys and contingencies.


Procurement, tendering and supply chain

For a project of this type and scale, our approach to procurement focuses on:

  • Selecting the right main contractor
  • Using structured tender documentation
  • Aligning with Schedule of Rates or market-tested rates where appropriate,
  • Early involvement of key specialists


We support the client through tender evaluation, interrogating rates, preliminaries and assumptions, and advising on the commercial implications of each bid.


Construction phase – commercial management and reporting

Once on site, our focus turns to controlling cost and maximising value in a live, discovery-rich environment. Core functions include:

  • Cashflow and applications for payment
  • Change control and value engineering
  • Cost reporting and risk management
  • Final accounts and commercial close-out


Throughout, our reporting is client-facing and decision-orientated, enabling the client to understand cost pressures, options and commercial impacts at each stage.


Why Staffordshire Cost Consultants

This commission illustrates Staffordshire Cost Consultants’ capability in heritage-led mixed-use development, specifically:

  • Working within the constraints of listed buildings, using conservation-aligned cost planning and procurement.
  • Managing the commercial implications of change of use from traditional banking hall to contemporary residential and hospitality uses.
  • Providing a full QS service – from initial budget and supply chain strategy through to construction-phase cashflow, cost reporting, value engineering and final account.


At 7 Market Place, our role is to ensure that an architecturally distinguished former bank, a key part of Derby’s Market Place, is given a viable new life as apartments and a bar-restaurant, with its heritage significance respected and the client’s commercial interests rigorously protected.