A Bentall Centre extension will not only enhance Clarence Street but provide an interesting new restaurant.

Work on the Bentall project has been planned with particular care.

For much of the centre's exterior is grade 2 listed because, to quote the official designation, it is architecturally valuable as "a restrained exercise in the English Baroque by an important architectural firm".

It is historically important as "a very unusual instance of a department store on truly metropolitan scale built in an outer-urban location".

And it is of special artistic interest because of its carved embellishments by one of the greatest British sculptors of his time, Eric Gill.

Extra footage on the first floor will be achieved by taking out the dome which currently rises over the main entrance in Clarence Street, extending the resulting space out to the official demarcation line between the centre and Clarence Street, and enclosing it behind dramatically large windows.

Robert Ritchie, director of the Bentall Centre, said the designers had been careful to ensure that the changes would blend sympathetically with the street scene without detracting from the adjacent listed facade.

He added, somewhat poetically: "This fresh new retail space will give a unique opportunity for a restaurant operator to create an exciting new vista for diners looking over Kingston's busiest street towards the tranquillity of All Saints Church and the bustling Market Place beyond."

Read more articles by June Sampson.