12 Monmouth Place, City Centre

12 Monmouth Place is a Grade II late 18th century terraced house, now with a commercial ground floor, situated within the Bath conservation area and World Heritage Site. It forms part of a varied terrace frontage of mixed height, articulation, and frontage treatment along Upper Bristol Road, and makes up a small cluster of four shop fronts, all now obscured internally, likely for residential purposes.

The Trust notes that it is proposed to “resume” the use of HMO from 2016, although there is no corresponding application for a change of use present as part of the planning history for 12 Monmouth Place.

We highlight that as part of application 13/03899/LBA, the use of the whole property as an HMO was felt to be unsuitable; the requirement of material changes such as fire separation and safety measures for the health and safety of residents “could create an element of harm to the period property, which would need to be justified.” As part of this current application, no material alterations along these lines are indicated, and it is unclear as to whether these are no longer deemed necessary, or whether unauthorised internal works have already occurred as part of the building’s 2016 HMO use. We therefore strongly suggest this is clarified with the case officer to ensure that the full scope of works is understood. If material works are proposed, an LBA would need to be submitted alongside this application.

We additionally query how the existing shop front window would be treated as part of this proposal. Consent was granted in 2013 (see 13/03899/LBA) for the creation of a “window display area”, although works have not since occurred and are not included on the present existing or proposed floor plans. We therefore suggest that further elaboration is provided regarding how the shop front would be integrated into this residential change of use.