Old Royal Oak, St Ann’s Place, Kingsmead, Bath

8A Monmouth Place, also known as The Old Royal Oak, is a Grade II late 18th century dwelling, formerly a public house, situated within the Bath conservation area and World Heritage Site. The property is a three storey insertion within a terrace of varied 2-4 storey height and as of 2019 retains its commercial, public house exterior through the maintained timber fascia and traditional lettering on the ground floor.

The property currently functions as a 14-bed holiday let, and the return to a longer-term residential function (C3 or C4) in this instance would therefore be a positive change.

However, considering the building’s Grade II status, and the information required to make proper assessment of the impact, there are some details regarding this application which would benefit from the submission of further information, and a listed building consent application: The application description refers to the inclusion of a “landlord’s store” as part of proposals, although this is not indicated within the proposed drawings or plans. It is unclear as to whether this would be a new external structure or form part of the internal treatment of the building, or whether there would be any associated material changes required. We suggest this is clarified for the benefit of the case officer and the assessment of the impact of the proposed works to a listed building.

Furthermore, there is an absence of details regarding the nature and scale of the proposed structural repairs to the roof trusses to “resolve movement of roof structure”.
From the proposed plans, it is additionally unclear as to where on the mansard roof slope the rooflights would be positioned and whether a rooflight would be positioned on both the north and south roof slope respectively or whether both rooflights would be ‘stacked’ on the north roof slope overlooking the road. We highlight the significance of clarity in this matter considering the roof’s high visibility from Monmouth Place and the building’s ‘stand out’ character as one of the taller 3-4 storey buildings dispersed along an otherwise 2-storey terrace. We query whether a listed building application should be required for the proposed insertion of two rooflights to assess the impact on the significance of the Grade II listed building.