New shop front in Yorkshire is “wholly incompatible” with the listed building it has been attached to

A retrospective application for work to 12 Rawson Place, which recently reopened as a jewellery shop called Milan’s Gold, has been refused by Bradford Council.

An application to alter the city centre unit was submitted by a Mr Holan earlier this Summer.

The changes include new black external roller shutters.

The application said: “The scheme makes a positive contribution to the built environment; the provision of much needed upgrade to the building in order to keep it occupied.”

The terrace of shops that make up Rawson Place date back to the 1890s, and the buildings have been listed since 1983.

The planning application for 12 Rawson Place refers to other nearby listed buildings in “Blackburn Town Centre.”

It adds: “The work carried out has been in accordance with recent work in the area and is in keeping with the property.”

Rawson Place was included in the Townscape Heritage Scheme – an ongoing £2m National Lottery funded project set up to restore neglected buildings in the city’s “top of town” area.

The scheme allowed property owners to bid for funding to help them restore buildings.

One Councillor objected to the plans for this new shopfront, saying they undermined the efforts being made to restore Victorian shopfronts on the street.

Referring to the new shopfront, Bradford Council’s Conservation Officer Jon Ackroyd said: “The aluminium frames are crude and incompatible with the age and character of the host property. The unbalanced appearance, poor proportions, and crude appearance harm the listed building.

“The overall effect is very poor and wholly incompatible with the listed building. The shopfront replaces a far superior installation which complemented the listed building.”

Planners refused the application for this reason, adding: “The external roller shutter is visually oppressive and harmful to the property’s appearance.”

A separate advertising consent application for new signage on the building has also been refused.

In that refusal officers said: “The traditional appearance of the listed shop front has now been partly concealed behind external shutters.

“(The signs) are incongruous additions which affect the appearance of the building which is a designated heritage asset.”

Councillor Si Cunningham (Lab, Bolton and Undercliffe) had objected to the plan. He argued the work was unauthorised, and undermined the aims of the Townscape Heritage project and other regeneration efforts around the Top of Town that aim to restore the area’s Victorian buildings.