Listed C18 building under threat of demolition
The Group has strongly objected to a proposal for wholesale demolition of a late eighteenth century building in the Cornish town of Penzance.
Standing on Chapel Street – the town’s outstanding street architecturally and the location of the celebrated Egyptian House of 1835 – the former Ganges restaurant at no 18 is a handsome Grade II listed building dating to c1785. Despite its deteriorated condition and loss over the years of internal features, the building’s distinguished principal elevation makes an important contribution to the historic townscape and forms a grouping with buildings of a similar date including nos. 15 and 16 (Crownley and Trevelyan House).
Vacant and neglected for nearly two decades, the building (once the residence of the Mayor of Penzance) is now back in single ownership and Cornwall Council has made efforts to engage the owner in constructive discussions about repair and reuse. Just prior to Christmas, however, the owner submitted plans to demolish the building in its entirety claiming that the building is beyond viable economic repair, and yet failing to provide a current structural report by a qualified professional – or even any interior photographs. We understand that the owner has been resistant to carrying out much-needed repairs or to engaging with potential funders or partners to save the building. There has been no professional marketing exercise to find a sympathetic new owner or viable new use.
The Group has written to Cornwall Council to object in the strongest terms to this application. We urged refusal on the basis that the proposal would cause substantial harm in heritage asset terms failing all the key tests in the National Planning Policy Framework (paragraph 207 – detail on significance; 212 – great weight test; 214a-d – substantial harm tests) as well as those in the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990. By destroying a listed building on the town’s most architecturally important street, the proposal would also cause serious harm to the character and appearance of the Conservation Area. No replacement scheme for the site has been developed or submitted as part of the application.
Please join us in resisting this application by registering a public comment with Cornwall Council:
List entry: https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1143150
Image: National Monuments Record