The deadline for comment on the Leaden Hall application has been extended by Wiltshire Council to 14th October. This is a highly important case, the determination of which will have lasting – and we believe highly damaging – consequences on the Grade I listed house and its setting . Proposals include development in the garden setting (immortalised by painter John Constable) including a new Archive building directly adjacent to the historic house, and a large solar array with air source heat pumps on the disused tennis courts.
We encourage all our Members to have their say on a proposal which has already elicited strong objection from others including Salisbury Civic Society, The Salisbury Close Preservation Society, national media (Robin Lane Fox wrote a recent piece in the FT) and countless others.
The Georgian Group’s advice following re-consultation remains unchanged: a formal objection to the scheme, which we consider would cause a high degree of ‘less than substantial harm’ to a Grade I listed building due to irreversible and highly detrimental development of its setting.
Leaden Hall is an exceptional house on The Close, the original canonry for the Cathedral, re-built in 1717 (making use of some medieval stonework) and extensively embellished in c.1800. John Constable was a regular guest in the early 19th century, being a friend of the then Archdeacon, and it was from here that the artist produced sketches for his many celebrated views of Salisbury. From the 1940s it became used as the site for Leaden Hall School. (We have also called for the full removal of school outbuildings.)
We consider that this Grade I listed building and its immediate setting is not the appropriate location for this hub – incorporating administrative, educational, archival and energy generation functions and services into one very highly protected, nationally important and vulnerable historic space.
Please click here and here to review the applications (PL/2024/00720 & PL/2024/00373) where you will have an opportunity to comment.