Heritage Statement and listed building consent for the reuse of a Grade II listed former bank.

A bank front with a much older building behind it.

The list entry describes an early to mid twentieth century front of eighteenth century character. Our research suggested the building is older than that implies. It can be identified on a map of 1742, and by 1844 it was the office of a coach proprietor and the departure point for the daily coach to London.

From 1852 it was a draper’s shop, and in 1880 the firm then trading there took on a young H.G. Wells as an apprentice, an episode marked by a plaque inside. The business was absorbed into Caley’s department store in 1909, and in 1919 the building became a branch of the Midland Bank, which it remained under successive names for a century.

Sources included the tithe map and Ordnance Survey editions from 1868, trade directories, the 1910 valuation survey, the 1911 census, historic and aerial photographs and the John Lewis Partnership archive.

Room by room: the gazetteer.

A building that has been a coach office, a shop and a bank has been altered many times, and the scheme touched most of it. The Heritage Statement therefore included a gazetteer: a record of every room from basement to third floor, with photographs and an assessment of the significance of what survives in each, together with schedules of every window and door.

That record showed where the significance lies. The front elevation and the main staircase, with its cast iron balustrade and mahogany handrail, are of high significance. The roof structure, the rear flat roof and the partitions on the ground and first floors are modern.

A holding objection answered by opening up.

The conservation officer’s first response, in December 2024, was a holding objection. The partitions on the upper floors had not been investigated, and the officer wanted to know what they were made of before agreeing to their alteration.

We advised on a programme of small, targeted openings. They showed that the spine walls on the second and third floors were historic timber framing with lath and plaster, and the scheme was amended to keep them, with a single doorway formed in each. The investigation also revealed a concealed cornice on the first floor, and led us to reappraise the upper floor windows as Georgian. The holding objection was withdrawn in January 2025.

Solar panels and heat pumps, opposite the Guildhall.

The revised scheme divided the building into two commercial premises, with a new door to the front in place of a modern window, where there had historically been a door, to give the upper floors their own entrance. Historic front windows were retained with secondary glazing, and the rear windows replaced with new timber sashes.

It also included four photovoltaic panels on the south-facing rear roof slope, close to the ridge, and two air source heat pumps on the rear flat roof. Because the roof had been shown to be a modern replacement, the panels affected no historic fabric, and their position kept them out of significant views. The conservation officer considered the location discreet and raised no objection to them.

Listed building consent (25/00405/LBC) was granted on 16 April 2025 with three conditions. The officer’s report described the submission as ‘a thorough heritage statement and schedule of historic features’ and found no harm to the listed building, its setting or the conservation area.