Former Football League HQ in Preston could give fans a chance to stay the night

An office building in Preston, which was once the home of the Football League, is set to become apartments if the city council waves play on.

An application to convert the historic property in Winckley Square into eight luxury Airbnb flats has gone before planning bosses.

If approved it will mean life for the Georgian style building will turn full circle - it was built in the 1830s as a stylish residence before being used as a private members' club, a Swedish bank and English football's centre of operations.

Number 30 Winckley Square is a fashionable Grade II Listed address which Barracks Properties of Clitheroe wants to turn into short-term accommodation for visitors to Preston.

In its application for a change of use from offices to residential, the company says it wants to add the vacant property to two others it owns and runs in Preston - City Haven in Cliff Street and Fulwood Heights in Watling Street Road.

"The business focuses on short to medium term holiday lets/serviced accommodation, with clients who are holidaymakers, visitors, business and key workers to the local hospital and university as well as corporate travellers to the city of Preston from within the UK and overseas.

"This type of accommodation appeals to business visitors to the area as it provides a home from home experience that you don’t get in a hotel room.

"The accommodation type also appeals to families looking to visit the area for a leisure break as it provides the comfort of general day to day living as opposed to the single space of hotel room.

"The applicant will advertise the rooms on Airbnb and booking.com as well as a dedicated website for the property as is done for the two existing properties owned in Preston."

For many years until 1988 the property housed a private members' club. It was later converted into offices and occupied by one of Sweden's major banks Svenska Handelsbanken.

But its history as the headquarters of the Football League between 1926 and 1941 is bound to attract interest from visitors to the city.

Number 30 Winckley Square is one of eight premises in Preston to have been the home of the Football League since its creation in 1888.

Preston North End were the first winners of the league title and the city was known as the “cradle” of the oldest professional football league in the world.

It was first based in a terraced house at 248 St Paul's Road in 1902, moving to 13 Winckley Street a year later, then Castle Chambers in Market Street in 1913. The move to 30 Winckley Square came in 1926 and the offices remained there until the building was requisitioned by the Government in wartime in 1941.

The League then moved into 102 Fishergate (now a bank) and 6 Starkie Street before moving out of Preston to the former Sandown Hotel in Clifton Drive, Lytham St Annes - the only time it has been outside Preston in more than a century.

It moved back to Preston in 1999 to premises on the city's Docks and in 2017 the League moved to its current home in Fishergate Hill.