Another coffee chain is set to open in the empty High Street unit left by a former stationery shop.

Costa Coffee looks to be opening in the former Paperchase shop in Worcester High Street which has been empty since the stationery provider closed in February after going into administration.

The coffee chain has submitted a planning application to Worcester City Council asking for permission to install new signs and revamp the front of the store with the chain’s famous branding.

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It would be the city centre’s third Costa Coffee with a store already open in Worcester High Street opposite the Guildhall, next to the Odeon Cinema in Foregate Street and in St Martin’s Quarter.

Paperchase went into administration in January this year putting all of its 106 stores under threat.

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The struggling stationery shop had been on the brink of administration a year earlier with most of its stores closed over Christmas because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Tesco stepped in to buy the Paperchase brand, but its shops were left to go under.

While work begins to gather pace to re-open the empty Paperchase unit, things have ground to a major halt at one empty building on the opposite side of the High Street.

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It has now been more than a year since Worcester was first treated to a glimpse inside the, at least at the time, ongoing work to transform the city centre’s former Debenhams store into a new food hall.

But despite those behind the glitzy new Artisan Foodhall sharing the behind-the-scenes sneak peek, and promising the glamorous new makeover would be revealed soon, no opening date has been announced and all signs of work seemed to have all but stopped.

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Elsewhere in the High Street, Tesco Express opened another store in the High Street’s former HMV in February and Danish chain store Flying Tiger closed the doors of its gift shop in March.

A historic golden lion statue was returned to its rightful place above Costa’s current High Street shop in March – almost four years after the 100-year-old statue was damaged by a storm.

The wooden statue serves as a reminder of the building’s previous life as the Golden Lion pub.