College Street & Vicarage Lane
College Street
College Street is the short stretch from the bottom of Wellgate to the meeting of Effingham Street with All Saints Square. The street has always been pretty much a part of the town centre. It was previously known as Jesus Gate. However you look at it was still named after the College of Jesus that once stood on a large site in this area.
The old Marks and Spencer is another of the mock Elizabethan buildings that were erected in the 1920s or 30s. It actually has some very nice stained glass. M & S has now closed and in May 2004 the lower floor is boarded up. This was re-opened as a Hitchens store in December 2004 and it is expected to close early in 2006. The building is now boarded up again.
It is likely to stay that way for a while as it is rumoured that the rent is £250,000 per annum, just a cool quarter of a million quid, with £100,000 business rates on top. Refurbishment costs could well run around £750,000. July 2008 a rumour has reached me that somebody has taken over this building but my gossip did not know by whom. In the second half of the 19th Century this site was occupied by the South Yorkshire Wine Spirit and Mineral Water Co Ltd with bottling works behind and the Bodega and the Grapes Inn in front. The Grapes closed in 1933 when Marks and Spencer took over the building.
Next door the Music Store has finally closed down and this shop is also empty. Then there is the HSBC bank which had a nice facade above a dreadful, modern frontage. All the old buildings on the corner of College Street and Doncaster Gate are gone and the modern ones are unworthy of comment.
The meeting of College Street with Effingham Street used to be called College Square where the trams had their terminus. I believe that this area was redeveloped in the 1920 and the square ceased to exist.
Vicarage Lane
Vicarage Lane is one of the old cobbled street of Rotherham. It climbs up from College Street into the Churchyard and is not a through route for cars. The building at the top left which is the site of the old vicarage. It was John Speed's Department Store, was used for various other things after Speeds closed down and was lately derelict. It has now been done up, and the site which stretches back and onto High Street is called the Phoenix Centre. In August 2007 all of the ground floor windows overlooking the churchyard are shuttered and there is a big sign saying 'Offices to Let'.
at the top of Vicarage Lane
A Living Over The Shops (LOTS) scheme has just opened above the Specsavers shop on the corner of College Street and Vicarage Lane. Eight town centre apartments have been created on the upper floors and are intended to provide affordable housing and a helping hand onto the housing market through a shared ownership scheme.