Hidden above the bustle of Queensgate Shopping Centre, there’s a piece of Peterborough that time almost forgot.
On 24th April, thanks to the Queensgate management team, members of the Discover Peterborough team were given rare access to a set of historic rooms above what is now Taco Bell (Unit 59). These spaces are not part of the public shopping centre experience. In fact, reaching them requires climbing steep wooden ladders, a small journey in itself that adds to the sense that you are stepping into something hidden and long untouched.
What lies above is extraordinary.
These rooms are the surviving upper storeys of an 18th-century building that once formed part of the Bell & Oak and the Greyhound, overlooking Cathedral Square and the Peterborough Guildhall. Today, they sit quietly above the modern retail space, almost entirely unknown to the thousands of people passing below each day.
Despite decades of change, this Grade II listed fragment still carries the character of its past life. Behind modern walls and shopfronts, you’ll find original fireplaces, aged timber beams, and layers of wallpaper that tell their own story. Late Victorian patterns sit alongside bold mid-20th century prints, with even traces of the 1970s still visible. It is a timeline you can see and feel, rather than read.
From the windows, there is a striking and unusual view out across Cathedral Square and the Guildhall. It is a perspective that very few people get to experience today, offering a quiet, elevated glimpse of the city that feels both familiar and completely new.
To understand how these rooms came to be hidden, you have to look back to the transformation of the city centre in the late 20th century. When Queensgate opened in 1982, it reshaped Peterborough, creating a modern retail destination and redefining the streets around Cathedral Square. Much of the older streetscape was cleared, but in some cases, buildings were not entirely lost. Instead, fragments like this were absorbed into the new structure, preserved almost by accident.
The Bell & Oak itself was a prominent 18th-century building, with rusticated stucco, sash windows and classical detailing. It formed part of an important historic group alongside the Guildhall and the Church of St John, contributing to the character of one of Peterborough’s most significant civic spaces.
Today, these upper rooms remain as a rare physical link to that earlier city. They bridge centuries of change in a single, hidden space, connecting Georgian Peterborough to the present day in a way that feels immediate and tangible.
Spaces like this remind us that Peterborough is not just layered in history. It is built on top of it.
A huge thank you to Queensgate for opening this up. For many of us, this will be the first and perhaps only time we get to see this hidden piece of the city.
