6 Tyning Terrace, Fairfield Road, Fairfield Park, Bath

6 Tyning Terrace forms part of an unlisted Edwardian terrace situated within the Bath conservation area and World Heritage Site. The area features a mix of early 20th century and mid to post-war terraces which are visually distinguishable from one another, resulting in a residential area of mixed architectural and material character. However, there remains an architectural homogeneity in the use of either Bath stone or reconstituted stone, bay windows, and either pitched or hipped roofs primarily in red clay pantiles. The area remains predominantly two storeys in height, with larger development functioning as landmark features such as Claremont Methodist Church. There are frequent examples of contemporary conversion of the roof space into an additional storey; this is externally indicated through the modest installation of rooflights to the front roof pitch, or dormer windows to the rear, to ensure the retention of the area’s largely homogenous roofscape character and low rise appearance.

We therefore have concerns regarding the proposed installation of three 'PK19 Cabrio’ rooflights and feel this would be an excessive and over-dominant addition to the roof pitch clearly visible in short and mid-range public views from along Fairfield Road and Croft Road. Whilst we acknowledge the precedent for a limited number of modestly sized and positioned rooflights in this area, the proposed volume and scale of the Cabrio rooflights would isolate 6 Tyning Terrace from its terraced neighbours at the detriment to the character and appearance of the streetscape and unbalance the largely homogenous roofscape appearance of the Fairfield Park area.

In particular, we highlight the use of ‘PK19 Cabrio’ windows as inappropriate due to their use as a “balcony system”, resulting in an increased window size and the visual increase of the property’s activated domestic space by one storey. We maintain that this type of rooflight would be detrimental to the established roofscape of the area in which the residential conversion of the roofspace is intentionally concealed from the street by the restriction of larger dormer windows to the rear and the use of recessively sized rooflights. The introduction of balconies, whilst of a ‘foldable’ type and therefore less visually permanent, would introduce an additional visual storey to the terrace incongruous with its low rise and unified terraced context. We have concerns that this would establish an unwelcome precedent for similar insertions along Tyning Terrace, and at present this application would neither preserve nor enhance the character of this residential area of the conservation area.

Should the principle of rooflights be accepted by the LPA, we therefore strongly recommend that a more typical rooflight of a reduced size is selected that conforms to the existing roof treatment of the area.