90B Walcot Street, Bath

90B Walcot Street is a Grade II Georgian house, now restaurant, situated within the ‘artisan quarter’ of the Bath conservation area and World Heritage site. It forms part of a largely Grade II late Georgian and early Victorian streetscape following a historic route into the heart of the city.

A similar application for the creation of a “roof top terrace” was withdrawn in February 2019. We maintain that there is insufficient historic assessment documentation provided within this application to understand the direct impact of these proposals. It is therefore difficult to comment on the loss of the southern portion of the roof in forming the roof terrace.

We acknowledge that this proposal has a negligible impact on the long views of the city, but it has some impact on immediate streetscape views such as from Walcot Street and Walcot Yard.

Considering the proposed volume of glazing, which has increased significantly in comparison with the previous application (see application 19/00022/LBA), and the lack of clarification regarding the terrace’s opening hours, we are concerned that no night time visuals have been provided to better enable an assessment of any harmful light spill that could impact city-wide views.

We do not feel that the LPA has been provided with enough information to properly assess this application due to a lack of available historic and design information. We would also recommend the inclusion of close to medium night time visuals due to Bath’s preserved character as a “low illuminated city” which maintains a desirable and positive evening and night time atmosphere within the conservation area.