A 19th century stately home and popular Isle of Wight events venue will have its facilities upgraded as part of a renovation.
County Hall gave the go ahead yesterday to Northwood House Charitable Trust’s application for listed building consent to enhance Northwood House’s catering and toilet facilities, described at present as ‘poor’ in a Design and Heritage Statement written by LMA Heritage Consulting Ltd.
The Cowes house is listed at Grade II* due to its ‘interior architectural interest’, according to public body Historic England.
Grade II* buildings are ‘particularly important’ and ‘of more than special interest’, making up around 5.8 per cent of all listed buildings.
Northwood House Charitable Trust’s plans include converting the house’s hot kitchen into gents toilets, the enlarging of the ladies toilets, new doors from a hallway off the Egypt Corner lobby, new cupboard storage areas, a kitchen renovation and a roof extraction system.
Also included in the proposals is a new rainwater drainage system on an external wall.
Converting the house’s hot kitchen into a male toilet would not alter the historic fabric of the building, a council report said.
Though an enlargement of the female toilets would result in an ‘element of harm’ due to two sections of wall being lost, it was considered to be of ‘public benefit’.
Wall section removals would not be to ceiling height, meaning the historic layout of the building remains visible.
The loss of ‘historic’ cupboards as a result of a new hallway entrance was deemed a concern but amounted to ‘less than substantial’ harm which would be outweighed by improving the function of the building – thought to be a public benefit.
New cupboard storage areas were not considered to be harmful due to no resulting loss of historic fabric and two reversible changes – an installed partition and the blocking of a door.
The proposed kitchen renovation raised a concern over the former kitchen area’s flagstone floor – not considered suitable in a space that has to be sterile.
A solution, however, would be to ‘apply a false floor’ over the flagstones which would be a reversible change.
Installing a roof-top extraction system was not seen as harmful due to it not being visible outside of the site.
An additional opening in the building’s parapet wall connecting to the building’s rainwater drainage system would resolve a water ingress issue, the council report added.
Conditions attached to County Hall’s approval include works being started within three years of permission being granted, development being carried out according to submitted plans and providing details of a floating floor in the building’s kitchen for council approval.
The report added details of the ‘location and external appearance’ of extraction fans should be submitted for approval prior to being installed and that wall section removals should be the ‘minimum height’ needed to allow access.
The requirements were justified on the basis of planning legislation, the Island’s planning policy framework and protecting the listed building’s special architectural and historic interest.
Historic England’s official list entry for Northwood House said:
“The interior contains decorations in the Egyptian or Etruscan mode including a ballroom with ceiling with 24 painted roundels of ancient and Mediaeval playwrights, philosophers, poets and orators.
“A drawing room decorated with painted swags and birds, a circular dome with Etruscan style painted ceiling, a staircase with two iron balusters to each step and Egypt Corner, a lobby having four columns with Lotus capitals supporting an entablature with painted snake emblems, eagles and pseudo-Egyptian hieroglyphs and three door surrounds with similar decorations.”
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