The scaffolding won’t be coming down for a while yet, but Creaseys’ has entered its new chapter regardless.
The department store’s opened its new retail floors in 13 High Street on Saturday.
That building used to be the HSBC bank branch before it moved across the High Street to the corner of the Commercial Arcade.
Creaseys had bought the bank building around a decade ago and only now are the store’s redevelopment plans starting to come to fruition.
The history
Creaseys opened in 1899 when Benjamin Creasey opened the family’s first shop. That was the draper business in numbers 2 and 3 Mill Street.
By 1911, Mr Creasey had bought his first High Street property, opening a shop at number 9.
His son Victor joined the business and since then more Creaseys have followed in their footsteps.
Today, Creaseys’ Managing Director is Benjamin Creaseys’ great-great-grandson, Jonathan.
Jonathan Creaseys’ father is Director and former MD Tony Creasey, his uncle is Chairman of the company and former MD Peter Creasey, and his cousin Ben Creasey is Group Financial Controller.
Despite the challenges that all businesses in Guernsey have faced over the last 100+ years, including during the Second World War, recessions, the advent of online shopping, and covid lockdowns, Creaseys’ has persisted successfully and still occupies prime retail space on the High Street, quayside, Smith Street, Le Bordage, Mill Street, and the Bridge. Other properties are leased to other retailers, with the M&S franchise also part of the Creaseys’ business.
13 High Street
Having bought 13 High Street – the HSBC bank building – around ten years ago, there was no immediate plan to align it with the retail space next door. However, when HSBC gave notice that it was moving across the road, a plan began to be formed.
Those plans were all in place, with work ready to start in March 2020 but when covid reached Guernsey it was all put on hold.
“I think the planning started in either early 2017 or early 18,” recalled Jonathan Creasey.
“We then got it to a point where we had permission granted for the work in January 2020, and we had a project team meeting, to kick things off in March 2020. It was all systems go, let’s go out to tender and find a builder and get cracking on the project. And, two weeks later covid kicks in, and it was sort of ‘down tools’. We weren’t at that stage yet so it was ‘down pens’ at that point.
“(Then we’re thinking) do we come out of it? And what do we look like when we come out of it, we just didn’t know. So covid definitely delayed us by three years but luckily, it delayed us, it didn’t put an end to the business, and it didn’t put an end to these ambitions to do this work.”
Work eventually started in early 2023 to remove the bank’s vaults with the major project to link 13 High Street to numbers 15 – 21 High Street starting that July.
The first phase of the work is now complete. The buildings are linked, offering a walk-through shopping experience across all of Creaseys’ retail floors.
Work continues however, with plans for a restaurant to be realised on the top floor and lingerie to be relocated back to level one.
The quayside external walls will be cleaned and redecorated before the scaffolding comes down next year, with all of the work expected to be complete before the end of 2026.
This is the biggest project Creaseys has embarked on since the work to rebuild numbers 15 and 19 High Street in the 1980s.
Retail confidence
Jonathan Creasey said he really is excited about this phase – being called ‘Chapter One’ in the next part of Creaseys’ story.
The new retail spaces are open to customers and initial feedback has been really positive.
“It’s phenomenal,” he said. “Honestly, I’ve got goose bumps really walking around and seeing every angle when you look up in the escalator void or on the retail floors. Wherever you look, there’s something you just notice first time and think ‘that’s cool’. When you see it on paper and you understand it on paper, actually seeing it in real life, and then understanding its relationship with everything else around it is really exciting.”
Ben Creasey said this investment is a vote of confidence in the Creasey family business as well as Guernsey.
“It shows confidence in the business, confidence in retail, confidence in the High Street. Creaseys’ has got a long history of investment in Guernsey and investment in the High Street and this is one of those milestone events which has happened almost continuously throughout the 126 year history of the company.”
Ben Creasey said he never had any doubts that this project was a positive step for the firm and the island.
“We’ve done it for the right reasons, and we’ve no doubt at all that it’s the right decision.
“Creasey’s has always had the purpose of being in it for the long term, in it for future generations, in it for the future of the High Street, the future of Guernsey, the future of the community. So I think, doing something like this just solidifies our place here.”
The retail experience
The flagship piece of the entire project may end up being the restaurant that is planned for the fifth floor of the new look Creaseys’ building.
Formerly an area used by staff for warehousing and meetings it is currently home to the lingerie department. In time that will move back down to level one with the restaurant opening with access to a terrace overlooking St Peter Port Harbour and the other islands.
Beneath that, where the coffee shop once was, female clothing is now for sale.
New fitting rooms have been built, where the kitchen once was, including accessible spaces so all customers are welcome to try before they buy.
Creaseys’ alterations lady has a new space to work from, while a staff meeting room has been created too. Work in these spaces revealed vintage wall paper which has been retained.
Other original or vintage aspects of the building have been incorporated in the public realms with the former bank’s scales now re-used as a mirror, and a feature wall created showing off the original brick work between the bank and neighbouring M&S.
Ben Creasey said they hope people will notice these things when they come in to shop.
“There is new stock, and there are also a lot of brands we’ve had for a long time which are now shown in a completely different light. We just need people to come in and then take a look and experience shopping here. We’ve gone for that premium feel, and we pride ourselves on our premium products, which hopefully satisfy a lot of customers.”
Ben Creasey reiterated this is only Chapter One of the redevelopment project – and the new restaurant will be Chapter Three, with lots more work to do in between.
“The final plan, and how that is exactly going to work and the format is yet to be decided, but we’ve got the staircase and the elevator which can go up to the top floor, bypassing all of the other floors, so we can open out of hours, and it’s going to be really exciting space where people can come shopping and go somewhere for a work meeting, for lunch, for a quick lunch during work hours, for a long lunch whilst they’re shopping, it will have something to suit everyone.”
“It’s really exciting,” Ben Creasey added. “We’ve taken two years longer just to get to this chapter but the next year is going to see a lot of change, a lot of movement, new departments opening up and it’s really exciting.”
Jonathan Creasey said thank you to everyone for the support the Creaseys’ family, staff, and contractors have received so far – and he acknowledged their customers in particular for their patience.
“For the last two years we haven’t been able to share as much as ideally we wanted to, because there’s been so much unknown. Taking photos of building sites is very difficult to really give any context, but our customers are incredibly patient. We’ve lost staircases. We lost the lift in the old building last August and that’s a big deal for a lot of people.
“We’ve been noisy, it’s been dusty, we’ve been encroaching into the public footpath and roads, so it’s all really inconvenient, but that’s the reality of this sort of nature of building work. We have to do it.
“There’s no yard in which the builders have got to work with, it’s in the middle of the High Street, listed buildings and full of activity. So to sort of manage that, the builders have done phenomenally well and our customers and our staff have been very patient.
“In the last couple of weeks, the effort from staff has just ramped up phenomenally. A week ago, we were trading from different areas of the old building, and a week later, we’re now open. This end product looks fantastic.”