My clients purchased a three-storey Victorian villa that had been converted to offices in or around the 1980's, at which time a single-storey rear extension was also constructed. The property retained its original two-storey coach-house at the rear and sunken garden at the front.
The site is within the Sherwood Conservation area, characterised by villas with large gardens and mature trees, and is built up on a hill with views towards the city centre. The front gardens of all these villas stepped down to the road and this lower garden area had previously been converted to a car park for use by the office so we were able to retain this area to provide more-than adequate parking for the new apartments.
The property was converted into one studio apartment, five one-bedroom apartments, and four two-bedroom apartments across three floors. One of the two-bedroom apartments was formed within the single-storey rear extension, and the coach-house became a duplex one-bedroom apartment. The existing basement provides landlord's storage, a meter room, and a cleaner's store and sluice sink. Rear access to the plot is available from the road to the rear, enabling bins to be collected easily.
The conversion work was carried out under the temporarily extended Permitted Development rights which allowed conversion from B1(a) Use Class to C3(a) Use Class. A Prior Approval application was submitted to agree that the works did not require Prior Approval and could be carried out under Permitted Development rights. However, as the property is in a conservation area then planning consent was required for the replacement windows and doors.
The building was generally structurally sound, but the modern extension was found to be of a very poor construction and required almost complete re-construction, with new wall ties, new floor joists, new flat-roof joists and covering, and new supporting partition walls. Similarly the non-original first-floor side bay window was also found to be of a very poor construction and required re-building.
The contractors were J. Tomlinson
Contract administration and site supervision was carried out by The Vinden Partnership
The mechanical and electrical design and specification was prepared by BEM Services
The structural engineers were CollinsHallGreen
