A former NHS building in the conservation area, its front lost behind a flat-roofed extension and a ramp. Eight flats, with the villa's face given back. Permission was granted in 2016 and the building was finished to the approved design.
A visualisation of the approved front, not a photograph. The colours are illustrative: the finished building is painted pale grey.
The front to Avenue Road twice, drawn to one scale: as we surveyed it in January 2016 and as the council approved it in August 2016.
A large house that had been a guest house, then an NHS building, stood empty from 2015. The conversion kept its street front and put back the details the later additions had hidden.
Warwick District Council decisions W/16/0077 of 4 April 2016 and W/16/1064 of 3 August 2016: change of use to eight flats with rear extensions, the roof rebuilt and the front extension and ramp removed.
Eight flats in an empty building on a conservation-area street, with parking off the road and room for bins.
The front had lost its Victorian character to a flat-roofed extension, a ramp and windows that matched nothing on the street.
From our Design and Access Statement and the officer's report.
Dates from the council's notices and our drawings.
The council's conservation officer called the scheme a significant improvement to a building that had suffered from unsympathetic alterations and additions, one that would enhance the conservation area. Timber sashes replaced the odd openings. The roof was rebuilt behind the front.
One front door and a central stair serve the flats. A front garden and steps replace the ramp. The side access is widened to five metres. Six spaces and a timber bin store are in a court at the rear.
Approved site plan, 2016. Not to scale. Zoom to read it.
Down the side, two- and three-storey rear wings in brick to match the old walls, mock sash windows and a slate roof with rooflights. The old hip was rebuilt as a gable.
Approved side elevation, 2016. Not to scale.
The revised scheme dropped the second-floor rear extension and added a roof terrace, its side screens in obscure glass for the neighbours. Glazed doors and Juliet balconies open the flats to the garden.
Approved rear elevation, 2016. Not to scale.
Permission, 3 August 2016.
Warwick District Council granted the revised scheme for eight flats, with no objection from the town council, highways or ecology. It found the conversion an enhancement to a building in need of repair.
Got a conversion? Ask us
The first permission, of April 2016, had already been started with its conditions discharged when the revised scheme was approved. A fabric-first upgrade of the old walls, floors and roof was set to cut the building's energy use by at least ten per cent.
17 Avenue Road is a large detached house on the south side of the street, inside the Leamington Spa conservation area and a short walk from the town centre. It was a guest house until 1984, then an NHS building. The Trust closed it in August 2015 and sold it on the open market.
Over the years the front had been extended and adapted: a flat-roofed extension across the ground floor, a ramp and steps to the door, windows that matched nothing on the street and an awkward roof behind. We surveyed the building in January 2016 and designed the conversion around putting that front right. The extension and ramp came off. A canted bay, a Gothic-arched doorway and box sash windows under label moulds went in, with the roof rebuilt behind and brick wings at the rear.
The first application, for eight flats with two- and three-storey rear extensions, was granted on 4 April 2016. The conservation officer had called it a significant improvement that would enhance the conservation area. A revised scheme dropped the second-floor rear extension in favour of a roof terrace, with obscure-glazed screens to protect the neighbours' privacy. It also moved the bin store. It was granted on 3 August 2016. The building was finished to the approved design.
We surveyed the building, designed the conversion and the restored front, wrote the Design and Access Statement and made both applications as agent.
The before in the slider above.
Through-colour render and natural slate.
Got a building to convert? Ask us at the start.
Tell us about your project
A Senior Architect will reply. We will give you an initial appraisal and guide you as to what to do next.