It’s costing millions of pounds to restore to its former glory.

And now you can see for yourself how the original home of Bobby’s department store in The Square, Bournemouth, is being brought back to life.

The first phase, by Verve Properties, the ethical property company, opened for business on September 9.

It includes the ground floor Bobby’s Beauty Hall with local and ethical brands alongside the usual international names.

There’s also a traditional ice cream and coffee parlour and DROOL, described as the world’s first food hall devoted entirely to dogs.

Features include a cake shop, a ‘Lick ‘n’ Mix station and a doggy tuck shop with fish & chip flavour dog treats, seaside theme biscuits, dog doughnuts and even liver cakes.

On show are some of the architectural features uncovered from the original Bobby & Co building.

They include brasswork in the entrance lobby, hidden for decades but now looking like new, pictured.

Ongoing work by Verve includes repairing the copper domes, reinstating the flagpoles, installing new ornate first floor balconies and replacing the 1970s canopy with the original design.

Ashley Nicholson, Director of Verve Properties, pictured left, estimated the total project will not be completed until later in 2022 with the final cost expected to exceed £6m.

Stressing the opening of the ground floor is just the first element he said the aim is not to replicate the traditional department store model, regarded by many now as outdated.

Instead, it is hoped to bring together up to 100 different uses and activities in order to draw in the widest number of people.

He said: “We want there to be experiences that you just cannot get on the internet.

“We’ve been blown away by the reaction we’ve received to our plans and what we’re doing,” he added.

Later this year will see the opening of the Bobby & Co Market Hall with fresh and independent food traders.

It will be spread across the entire first floor alongside Bobby’s Bar, the deli, coffee lounge and Bobby’s Emporium Liquor store.

They will be nestled among a mix of artisan traders with live music, a communal bar and coffee lounge and seating for up to 400 people.

Planned for the near future are a sushi and plant-based poke bowl bar, a nail bar, treatment rooms, and female and male grooming.

More elements are planned all the way through the year and into 2022.

Bobby & Co opened in 1915 in The Square and remained under that name for more than 50 years.

It was rebranded in 1972 as part of the Debenhams group.

In true 1970s fashion its art deco windows and ceilings were covered over with chipboard and hidden away.

For the next few days the first floor has been given over to a range of local and distinctive producers and retailers offering everything from jewellery and clothes to gin and ornaments.

Over the weekend – September 11 and 12 – South Coast Makers Market has organised 30 different ‘makers and foodies’ each day.

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Dorset Biz News Gallery – Opening of Bobby & Co, Bournemouth.

Jo and Kat Foy, South Coast Makers Market

Emma Mount and Sarah Cunningham, The Pennant People.

Belen Robbins, Whimsical Forager.

Martin Jennings, Pothecary Gin

Tegan Randall, Ocean Influence Art

Silva Bough, Caroline Crichton, Emily Dillon, Fran Garvey, The Venue Beauty Salon.

Olivia McKay and Anna Novell, Benefit San Francisco

Anya Botterill, Laura Kendall, Stacey Herbert, bareMinerals

Sophie Jeans, Estee Lauder

Kerry Meyer and Kathleen Parsons, Clarins

Jasmin Miah, Jazmine Loder, Becca Ricketts of Elizabeth Arden

Sarah Ricketts, Delicious Bits Jewellery