A CITY centre store which brought a new slant on shopping to the streets of York could be turned into riverside restaurants.

Architects have submitted a request to turn the Argos outlet in Bridge Street, which overlooks the River Ouse, into two new eateries as the catalogue shopping firm’s lease on the site comes to an end.

But the chain says a decision has yet to be taken on whether this could mean the end is looming for the store – almost 26 years after it first opened its doors.

The change of use application has been handed in to City of York Council by Shropshire-based DGA Architects Ltd on behalf of a Manchester firm named Dream Capital Ltd, and is now set to go before the authority’s planning committee in the summer.

A spokeswoman for Argos said: “We can confirm that the lease at Bridge Street is due for renewal.

“We have a large portfolio of properties and the leases come up for renewal all the time.

“No decision has been made regarding the future of the store, and if there is any news to be announced, we will release it at the appropriate time.” The Argos showroom – which previously housed a Boyes department store – provided a fresh way of shopping in York when it welcomed its first customers in September 1983, allowing them to choose items from catalogues placed around the store and then picking them up from collection points linked to on-site warehouses, rather than taking goods straight off the shelves.

At the time it opened, it was the 129th store the chain had set up in the UK, since when the company has launched further York outlets in Piccadilly and at the Clifton Moor and Monks Cross shopping centres on the edge of the city, and underwent a £300,000 facelift which included a new electronics department in 1989.

In a design and access statement which forms part of the application, DGA Architects said: “The change of use proposal from retail to restaurants would entail subdividing the existing floor plan in an east to west direction, creating two new restaurants. Customer entrance would be from the existing pedestrian walkway along the river. The proposed conversion would take advantage of the excellent riverside views afforded by the location.”

The firm said that, if the building’s owners were given permission for the change of use and decided to press ahead with it, any detailed designs for new restaurants would have to be subject to further planning applications.