Inside the parts of Edinburgh store Jenners you've never seen before

By Angie Brown

BBC Scotland, Edinburgh and East reporter

For generations of shoppers, a trip to the historic Jenners department store was the highlight of any trip to Edinburgh’s Princes Street.

But hidden from the view of its loyal customers were hundreds of secret rooms and turrets accessible only by a select few.

Now Jenners is closed and the Victorian building is being refurbished, BBC Scotland News has been granted rare behind-the-scenes access.

Danish billionaire Anders Holch Povlsen, who owns the 129-year-old property, is restoring the store and creating a hotel in disused rooms above it.

One of the oldest department stores in the world, Jenners is in the midst of a five year restoration to return it to its former glory.

All the old Victorian wiring and asbestos has been removed and the construction phase due to start before the summer is expected to take three years.

The department store including the famous atrium – a three-storey, top-lit grand saloon where the huge Christmas tree was erected every year – is being restored.

And about 107,000 sq ft (10,000 sq m) of disused rooms above the department store in the six storey building will be made into a hotel.

A cafe will be created between the department store and hotel.

The directors’ board room will be turned into a luxury suite looking out over Princes Street and The Mound.

Another part of the hotel – the Tower Suite – will span two floors and will include a bedroom with round windows that look out on to the Scott Monument.

It will also have a private rooftop terrace.

On the other side of the building – on the Rose Street side – there will be a roof top bar overlooking St Andrew Square.

The hotel’s entrance will be on Rose Street at the back of the building, while the department store entrances on Princes Street and South St David Street will remain as shop doors.

The Victorian facade will also be restored, while the 1966 extension facing on to Princes Street will receive a new front, “which respects the older sections of the Jenners building”.

The building’s parapet will be extended and the roofscape will be tidied as part of plans for the rooftop bar.

During the demolition phase workers uncovered an ornate lift cage behind plaster board.

Research by a conservation architect has since discovered it is one of the earliest lifts in Britain.

Parquet flooring dating back to 1895 was also found and will be restored.

Thousands of tonnes of material including 300 tonnes of metal have also been removed.

All the material was removed by hand and dropped down a lift shaft before being pushed through a large window on to Rose Street.

All the glass in the atrium’s roof will also be replaced and the railings cleaned.

Edward Rennie, director of management construction firm Redside Property Consultants, said: “The glass is filthy and stained and has to be upgraded as it is past the point of being serviceable.”

“The hardest part is maintaining the exact look,” he added.

“There is not one part of the building that is not being worked on. Every single pipe and wire will be refurbished.”

Last year firefighter Barry Martin, 38, died at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh following a fire in two rooms of the store.

A room and a changing room area in what was the menswear department of the store were damaged.

Anders Krogh, from AAA United, the company that manages the building for Anders Holch Povlsen, said Mr Martin remained in their thoughts.

He said a permanent memorial to Mr Martin would be erected in the building during the refit.

“We are working on a way to honour Mr Martin in the atrium,” he said. “We will seek approval with his family nearer the time.”

At its height, more than 100 firefighters and 22 fire appliances were at the scene of the “serious and complex fire” at the Jenners building.

Two other firefighters taken to hospital were treated for smoke inhalation, and two were treated for burns. A police officer also received treatment.

Mr Rennie said: “There has been a huge effort to clean the smoke out of the two rooms.

“We used vacuums and hand washed everything using an alkaline solution.”

He said the fire only damaged 2600 sq ft (250 sq m) of the total 193,000 sq ft (18,000 sq m) of Jenners.

Founded in 1838, Jenners is one of the oldest department stores in the world to continuously trade from the same site.

After the original Jenners building was destroyed by a fire in 1892, architect William Hamilton Beattie designed the current building on Princes Street in the Victorian renaissance revival style.

The new building opened in 1895 and was extended in 1903. Further extensions were added in the 1950s and 1960s.

The building was sold to private investors in 2005 after House of Fraser bought the Jenners brand and property.

It was then bought by Anders Holch Povlsen in 2017 for a reported £53m.

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