Visitors to Armley's Town Street will soon be invited to step back in time as a Victorian transformation of the area's shopfronts gets off the ground.

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Traders hope the project– part of the £1m townscape heritage initiative – will return a bit of old-fashioned prosperity to the area.

Businesses are being encouraged to apply for cash grants which will pay for the work and to come up with new Victorian-themed designs.

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They are also being urged to tear off the modern cladding which often hides original, stylish and unique designs which can be painted and repaired.

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David Skelton, owner of Skelton's butchers, one of the oldest original surviving shops in Town Street, is backing the project.

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"It's a very good scheme and we will be signing up, " he said.

"We have already got an architect to draw up what we want to do.

"I'm looking to do something which will make it more olde worlde. We don't want to modernise it, we want to go back to the past, to Victorian times.

"Hopefully enough people will take it up to make it work."
History

Mr Skelton can trace back the history of his shop to its very beginnings in 1850, when it started and remains a butcher's shop despite passing through several generations and three different families.

The shop's sign is already one of the most recognised and unique in Town Street.

A printed guide with hints and tips for traders is being distributed to Armley shopkeepers this week.

The guide encourages people to come up with their own new designs but advises that "19th and early 20th century shopfronts should be retained."

Phil Ward, team leader for Conservation at Leeds City Council, who is leading the shopfronts project, said: "One of Armley's strengths is its of old shop fronts, some of which have been covered up but could easily be revealed and made good again.

"The aim of this guide is to show shopkeepers and planners how this could be done and how new shop fronts could be made in-keeping."

The shopfronts revamp is the latest in series of recent developments which, it is hoped, will boost the area.

Plans for a major new supermarket just off Town Street were recently unveiled, and several long-empty shop units are thought to have been let.

Two closed-down local pubs – the Royal Hotel and the Nelson Inn – are to re-open as a bar and Indian restaurant respectively, and the brand new £15m Armley Leisure Centre has already proved a hit.