Coney Street Lush Unit: Cafe Plan Would Create 20 Jobs

The empty shop on Coney Street that Lush used to trade from would become a cafe employing 20 full-time staff, under three applications now open for comment at City of York Council.

The applicant is Federal Cafe, a Manchester business. The three applications were received on 11 August and validated on 12 August 2026:

• 26/01483/FUL for the kitchen extraction system, plant to the rear and shopfront alterations including a canopy
• 26/01484/LBC for listed building consent covering the same works plus internal alterations to the ground and first floors
• 26/01485/ADV for one fascia sign and one hanging sign

The consultation closes on Thursday 3 September 2026. The advertisement period runs to Wednesday 9 September, and the council has until Wednesday 7 October to decide. The case officer is Katherine Stretch, and the site sits in Guildhall ward.

What the applicant is proposing

The building is Grade II listed and stands in the Central Historic Core Conservation Area. The council’s register lists the site as Lush, Unit 3, 3 to 7 Coney Street. The planning and heritage statement submitted with the applications gives the address as No. 5 Coney Street and describes the unit as “a currently vacant retail unit (previously home to Lush)”.

The statement was prepared by Gallagher Planning of Beverley, with drawings by PHAUS. It lists the works as:

• alterations to the shopfront, with a new fascia sign and hanging sign, both non-illuminated, and a canopy
• installation of a kitchen extract and associated plant, with a condenser unit to the rear
• painting the external walls of the rear courtyard, and installing seating benches and planters
• internal fit-out, and new internal foul water drainage
• an accessible toilet at ground floor
• removal of a modern stud wall at first floor, replaced with a glass block wall
• a new door to the rear

The statement says there would be “no loss of original fabric” and that all the proposed works would be “fully reversible”. That is the applicant’s case, not a council finding. The council has not yet reached a view.

The application form gives the proposed opening hours as 07:30 to 16:00 Monday to Friday, and 08:00 to 17:00 on Saturdays, Sundays and bank holidays.

On employment, the form records nought existing full-time staff and 20 proposed, a full-time equivalent of 20.

Why the cafe itself needs no permission

A detail worth understanding if you are thinking of commenting: the change from a shop to a cafe is not what is being decided here.

Both retail and food and drink sit inside Use Class E, the broad commercial class created in September 2020. The statement puts it plainly: “The application site consists of a currently vacant retail unit (previously home to Lush) and thus the building is in E use class. As such planning permission is not required for change of use to cafe, nor in our opinion for the use of the courtyard to the rear for external seating.”

So the council is being asked to rule on the physical works: the extraction system, the shopfront, the signage and the internal alterations to a listed building. Objections about the principle of a cafe on Coney Street would carry little weight, because that principle is not in the council’s gift. Objections about extraction noise, the appearance of the shopfront or harm to the listed building are the ones that engage the tests the officer has to apply.

What is listed, and what is not

The Historic England list entry quoted in the applicant’s statement covers Nos 3, 5 and 7 Coney Street together. It describes “four houses, one pair and two single, amalgamated to form department store”, early 18th century with 19th century rear extensions, and “alterations and shopfront c1960”.

Two details in that entry are unusual enough to be worth repeating. The rainwater heads on Nos 3 and 5 are inverted bell-shaped and decorated with winged cherub heads, dated 1775 and 1770. Both Nos 3 and 5 retain 18th century staircases. The list entry notes that the interior was not inspected when the buildings were listed.

The applicant argues the buildings were listed as one because a single shop occupied all three at the time, that they have since been split back into separate units, and that No. 5’s interior “has been heavily altered and very few historic features remain in situ”.

The Coney Street context

Consent already exists for far larger changes to the same block. Application 23/00420/FUL, permitted, allows extensions to the roofs to create an additional storey, partial demolition of No. 5 to form a walkway connection through to the rear, new shopfronts, commercial floorspace and seven residential units on the upper floors. A variation, 25/01784/FUL, altering the approved plans and elevations, has also been permitted.

The same block’s planning history includes a refusal worth noting: in 2016, application 16/01269/FUL for change of use of pavement to provide outdoor seating was refused. This time the outdoor seating proposed is in the rear courtyard, not on the street.

Who Federal Cafe are

The planning statement describes the business as “founded in Manchester in 2014 as a small neighbourhood cafe”, now with “three cafes in Manchester and one in Leeds”, and says it is “very keen to bring its Antipodean inspired offer to York City Centre”.

Federal’s own locations page currently lists five sites: Nicholas Croft in Manchester’s Northern Quarter, 194 Deansgate, Circle Square on Oxford Road, Altrincham Market, and 34 Boar Lane in Leeds. It makes no mention of York.

What it means for you

If you want to comment, do it through the council’s planning register before Thursday 3 September 2026. Comments are public, and the officer has to consider them against the tests in the City of York Local Plan, adopted in February 2025. The applicant’s statement identifies policies DP2, SS3, D1, D2, D4 and D5 as the relevant ones, with D4 covering conservation areas and D5 listed buildings.

Three practical points:

• Comment on the works, not the use. The cafe use needs no permission, so objections to it will not weigh.
• The extraction system is the part most likely to affect neighbours. The site backs onto a public house, and the applicant states the surrounding buildings are commercial rather than residential.
• Each application is separate. If you object to the signage but not the extract, say which reference you mean.

At the time of writing, the register recorded no public comments on any of the three applications.

If the works are approved and carried out, the cafe could open without any further planning decision. If they are refused, the unit can still be let to a cafe; it would simply have to trade without the extraction system, shopfront changes and signage as proposed.

Sources: City of York Council planning register, applications 26/01483/FUL, 26/01484/LBC and 26/01485/ADV, including the application form and the planning and heritage statement submitted on 11 August 2026, checked on 23 August 2026. Business locations from Federal Cafe.

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