12 Monmouth Place, City Centre, Bath

12 Monmouth Place is a Grade II late 18th century terraced house situated within the Bath conservation area and World Heritage Site. The building features a 19th century shopfront and remained in commercial use until around 2013 (see 13/03899/LBA). 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 building has since undergone a number of material alterations, including the replacement of the original sash windows with casements and the application of what appears to be a pebble-dash render over the original Bath stone ashlar façade.

BPT originally commented in response to application 21/00057/FUL regarding the suitability of the building for HMO use without corresponding material works (ie. fire separation and safety measures). This application was permitted and the principle of HMO use across the ground-third floors has been established.

The proposals would see a change of use from a 6-bed HMO to a 8-bed HMO. Whilst the rear room at second floor level is not indicated as a bedroom in the existing/proposed plans, it is labelled as such under application 21/00057/FUL and it is therefore presumed that use of this room would continue in this capacity unless explicitly stated.

It is unclear as to whether the proposed use of the lower ground floor room to provide 2 bedspaces meets with B&NES’ minimum space standards; a room of double occupancy is expected to be at least 10.22m2.

We note works were granted listed building consent in 2013 for conversion of the lower ground floor room from a kitchenette to a living room and as such the principle of the residential use of this space has been established. Where these works have not been enacted within the time limit or where there is a need to address potential issues, eg. damp ingress, we maintain the need for the submission of a relevant LBA.