Rethink for New North End Road Hotel
39 bed apart-hotel hotel will now replace House Mart building
A CGI from the developer of the Apart-hotel planned on North End Road
January 23, 2023
A developer planning to build a hotel at 284 - 288 North End Road has changed course, altering the scheme from a 103-bedroom hotel to a smaller apart-hotel with 39 bedrooms and a new retail space on the ground floor.
H&F Council has given developer Governside Ltd the go ahead for its change of plan, which will see the demolition of the ugly building currently housing the budget store House Mart, which is in the midst of a closing down sale.
In its application for the new plans, the developer says the previous scheme was withdrawn following “adverse comments” from adjoining residents, council members and planning officers.
The new scheme, it says has been “sensitively re-designed” by architect WAMM Consulting to address these comments, with improvements including reducing its height from five storeys to four, reducing and setting back the north corner, increasing its green roof area and adding a living wall opposite the listed building next door. The top storey has also been set back to align with the adjacent Travelodge Hotel.
The architect claims the new apart-hotel will “dramatically improve the street scene” in North End Road and provide the catalyst for further improvements to its surroundings.
House Mart is in the process of closing down
It is one of several schemes in the offing which are set to change the face of our main shopping street, including the renovation of the building which formerly housed Boots and the departure of the Co-op to be replaced by Lidl.
The new apart-hotel will include a breakfast room, but the rooms will offer basic self-catering facilities. Four of them will be fully accessible.
The application, which was approved last month, is for:
Variation of Condition 2 (approved drawings), Condition 34 (number of rooms), Condition 52 (Sustainable design and construction), Condition 53 (Carbon reduction) and Condition 57 (number of rooms), and removal of Condition 35 (breakfast room)to allow minor material amendments to planning permission reference: 2017/04216/FUL dated 29 March 2019, as amended by 2020/02512/NMAT, for the "Demolition of existing building, and redevelopment of the site to provide a hotel (Use Class C1) and retail unit at ground floor level (Use Class E(a) the display or retail sale of goods, other than hot food)." Amendments sought are for: - change from 100 bed hotel to 39 bed apart-hotel (Class C1); - enlargement of ground floor refuse store by 2.2m in length along the side elevation facing Bucklers Alley; - excavation of a single storey basement instead of two floors; and - minor adjustment of window positionings.
You can see the full details of the new scheme on the council’s website using the reference 2021/01830/VAR.
A visualisation of the previous plan for the site now scrapped
An application has also been submitted to cover the scaffolding with an illuminated shroud advertising screen during the demolition and rebuilding, expected to start this March and finish in March next year, as follows:
Display of an externally illuminated shroud advertisement screen onto the proposed scaffold to the North End Road elevation of the building measuring 10.5m (Height) x 6.2m (Width) for a temporary period from 1st March 2023 until 1st March 2024.
This is currently being considered by council planners. You can see full details of this application, and provide comments using reference 2022/03673/ADV.
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