The Storehouse, or The Old Store as it was previously known, was built in around 1880 as a herring curing store. It is a grade B Listed Building, and has changed very little since 1880 and still retains many of its original internal timbers, some of which are believed to have been salvaged from tall ships.

In its lifetime, the 19th Century building has been used as a print works and stationery storage by George Leonard, however it lay in a state of neglect until Judith Glue and David Spence bought it to use as a storage facility in 2011.

Two years later, in 2013, it was proposed that the boundary of Kirkwall’s Conservation Area be extended. The Old Store would now fall within this area, and the building received “priority” status, meaning grant funding was available through the Kirkwall Townscape Heritage Initiative (KTHI) towards the cost of Restoring this B Listed former Storehouse and bringing it back into use, giving the owns the opportunity to develop the building sooner than they’d originally thought possible.

Soon after a new company, “The Old Storehouse Ltd”, was formed.