Historic listed building in Huntingdon could become a family home
Wykeham House is a Grade II Listed building on the Market Square in Huntingdon - Credit: Archant
“Wykeham House is a prominent Grade II building that occupies an important position within the centre of the town” says the planning application.
A listed office building facing Huntingdon's historic Market Hill could become a home.
A bid to change the use of Wykeham House, a Grade II listed building which forms part of the town's conservation area, from business to residential has been made to Huntingdonshire District Council.
Damon Bentwood, who has made the planning application, said the change would not affect the appearance of the building and it would have less impact on neighbours than continuing use as offices.
He said in his planning application: "This is an application for change of use from commercial class B1 to residential class C3. I do not plan to make any changes to the structure or fabric of the building, simply to change use from office to residential for a single family dwelling. This will only involve the addition of an oven to the kitchen and a shower to one of the toilets.
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"I am not making any changes to the external walls so my proposal will have no impact on the neighbourhood or neighbouring properties."
Mr Bentwood said: "However, since I am proposing to occupy this as a single residential family dwelling, any affect on the neighbourhood will be significantly less than the impact of the previous multiple office usage."
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Wykeham House, next to the Falcon pub, had been in office use for many years but this ended in 2016 and the building has been empty since.
A heritage statement submitted as part of the application said there was a difficulty in letting town centre offices, especially when there was limited parking.
Wykeham House has four parking spaces at the rear.
The application said: "Wykeham House is a prominent Grade II building that occupies an important position within the centre of the town and adds significantly to enclosure of Market Hill and grouping of buildings around All Saints Church."
It said the building was thought to have dated from the early to mid 18th Century and been re-fronted in the early 19th Century. Significant internal alterations had taken place in the mid to late 20th century to enable its use as offices.
The heritage statement said the proposed change represented an "acceptable and appropriate" form of development.
The area close to Wykeham House underwent significant change some years ago when the former Cambridgeshire County Council landholding was sold for housing redevelopment and some of its former offices were also converted to homes.
