Queen Square development

No.11 Queen Square

The old ice-rink in Queen Square (no.11b) has already been demolished and, if application BH2016/01497 is approved, no.11 in the corner will also go. The square dates from around 1850.

The Proposal

In place of 11 and 11b is proposed a five storey building providing 26 residential units with offices at lower ground floor level. This application supersedes an earlier application for a boutique hotel with a public restaurant on the ground floor. The latter facility would have at least had the benefit of boosting the vibrancy of the square but the applicant now feels that housing demands should take precedence.

Rear of ice-rink site - St.Nicholas Churchyard wall

At the time of the original application in 2011 many people felt that the development  provided a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to provide new access to the St. Nicholas Open Space. By cutting an opening in the wall and installing a permissive footpath alongside the new building, or under its first floor, an underused section of the Open Space would have been made considerably more accessible, and footfall in the square would have been increased. However, notwithstanding that the idea once found favour in the Council planning department the idea was eventually defeated by the forces of conservatism.  

See earlier posts:-

A new footpath for St. Nicholas?
New Queen Square hotel - planning application