RESTO HUB UP AND RUNNING
Historic Rolls-royce site revived in bid to nurture new talent
A£3m restoration hub has opened in a former Rolls-royce factory in the heart of Derby – and its owners want you to bring your classics along to find out more.
Great Northern Classics, based in an 85,000sq ft former foundry previously used as a Rolls-royce heritage centre, is now open to the public and has its first six specialists up and running on site; plans are in place to fill the remainder of the units within the next 18 months.
The site’s owners originally planned to open the heritage hub last autumn but opted to delay due to the amount of finishing work involved in preparing the historic site. It’s now encouraging enthusiasts to visit the new site, which includes an on-site eatery, Café Miura and a classic dealer, Pinchbeck.
Great Northern Classics founder Shaun Matthews said: ‘We have had our challenges with an old building but it’s all come together and quite quickly over the last month in particular. I’m really pleased with how it’s gone and the reception that it’s had.
‘Our mission is to preserve historic vehicles and encourage the next generation to take an interest in them and keep them relevant. My first classic was a Wolseley 1500 and it’s the skills that would be needed to keep something like that going that we want to share with a younger generation that might be less technically able.’
The site’s initial tenants include HTVM Garage, a Derbyshire-based Land Rover specialist that closed down during the Covid-19 pandemic but decided to re-open at Great Northern Classics after hearing about it during a chance conversation in a pub. Staykool is an air conditioning specialist who had previously worked from home but chose to use Great Northern Classics as an indoor weatherproof base of operations. And Glowsmith specialises in automotivethemed candles and gifts.
Restoration and classic modernising specialist Auto Rara decided to open a showroom at the historic venue in addition to its main base in Ilkeston. Director David Stubbs told Classic Car Weekly: ‘We cover everything from Hillman Mixes and Jaguar E-types to Mitsubishi Evos and for us Great Northern Classics was a no-brainer.
‘Being in the heart of this automotive hub means that we have access to all the new talent that’s being trained here and we’re close to the engineers and training.
‘It also means that we have a fantastic shop window for our business – there’s no other way that we’d be able to get 500 people, all of whom are interested in cars, walking right past our front door. If we want to have a coffee with a customer, we can walk up the stairs to a café surrounded by classics.’
And Craig Cook of alloy wheel specialist CS Automotive said: ‘We heard about it from another specialist based here and I’m really pleased with how it’s gone so far. As a business we’re really looking forward to talking to and working with lots of car fans.
‘It’s absolutely fantastic – everyone here is a petrolhead and they’ve been very supportive.’
David Simister
❚ greatnorthernclassics.co.uk