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Shops and homes plan for weekly's former offices

A weekly newspaper’s former offices are set to be converted into shops, homes and a gym after plans were given the green light by council chiefs.

The development of the Doncaster Free Press’s previous Sunny Bar headquarters, pictured below, will see it turned into five ground floor retail units and a multiple occupation house containing fourteen bedrooms on the first and second floors.

A gym, lounge, office and store areas in the basement will also be installed at the premises .

Doncaster Council gave the scheme the go ahead this week, with work due to begin in the New Year.

Doncaster Free Press HQ

The Free Press was founded at Sunny Bar, in Doncaster town centre, in 1925, where it remained for 89 years until staff moved to a new home on the corner of Printing Office Street and Cleveland Street in January this year.

Other sister titles which are now based at the new offices include the South Yorkshire Times and the Epworth Bells.

More than 4,500 editions of the paper were produced within the old site, which was constructed in 1902.

It also housed a tea room, chemist and retail units over the course of its life until the Free Press took over the entire building in the early 1990s.

The new scheme is set to be undertaken by family-owned property company Belgray, which has been involved in a string of housing developments across the Yorkshire town.