An Orkney jewellery business has plans for an eye-catching addition to Kirkwall’s main high street – with a three-storey-high Old Man of Hoy sculpture.
Sheila Fleet has asked to add a new façade to the outside of 50 Albert Street – which many locals will know as the former home of The Orcadian Bookshop.
This would include adding bronze panels in the shape of Orkney’s iconic Old Man of Hoy to the front and side of the building
The design will be “tied together” by a “steel sculpture of three flowing wave forms”, the jewellery designer explains in a letter to the council’s planning department.
It could be mistaken for a giant golden bangle looped around the building.
What else is planned at Sheila Fleet shop in Kirkwall?
Permission to add a balcony to the top floor of the building is also sought.
Another feature of Sheila Fleet’s plans for the shop would be a “unique stained-glass installation” inside the second-floor windows.
This would be designed by Orcadian artist Shona McInnes.
Sheila Fleet bought shop in 2022 – but is yet to move in
Sheila Fleet OBE is known as one of Scotland’s leading designers of silver, gold and platinum jewellery.
These new plans show that the ground and first floors of the building would be used as retail space.
Meanwhile, the top floor would be an office and area for workbenches.
The jeweller got the keys to 50 Albert Street from former owners James and Christine Miller in August 2022.
At that time, the plan had been to move the business from its current Bridge Street shop sometime this year.
However, the move hasn’t happened yet.
New shop design ‘would be a celebration of Orkney’
In her letter to the planning department, Sheila Fleet says the current front of the shop “has little historic value.”
She says it “does not in any way complement my jewellery.”
As such, she says there’s “an opportunity to design something special that showcases Orkney’s natural landscapes and all that inspires my silver, gold, and gem-set jewellery.”
She says her businesses’ proposals would be a “celebration” of Orkney’s rack stacks, stormy seas, shoreline caves, and beaches as well as “all the wonderful colours of the seasons.”
However, there is one objection attached to the plans.
This has come from next-door neighbors.
They are supportive of the plans in general – but take issue with proposed changes to a wall between the two properties.
You can see the application here.
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