A 130-year-old grade II listed county court building in Oldham which was more recently a popular restaurant will be converted into flats, planning documents reveal.
The building on Church Lane in Oldham town centre was erected in 1894 to be used as a county court and bankruptcy court office for the borough.
In 1990, the building was converted into The Salt Cellar restaurant and a resource centre by the Methodist Church, but has stood empty since it closed in January 2022 which Addision Planning Consultants Ltd said was due to falling into disuse during Covid-19 which it failed to recover from.
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As a result, Addision submitted a proposal in August last year on behalf of Property Investment Complete Church to convert the building into 15 residential apartments, comprised of nine one-bedroom and six two-bedroom units.
Addision Planning said this would provide some affordable housing to Oldham and bring a brownfield development of a redundant building back into use.
Further recorded by M B Heritage and Planning Ltd reveal the building's long-standing history, writing that it sits within the bounds of Oldham Parish church and abuts properties spanning as far back as 1800.
The building is currently recorded on the National Heritage List for England and was added to the statutory list with a grade II status in 1973.
The description of the grade II listing states the building was built by architect, Henry Tanner, with features spanning from its "red brick with white white terracotta dressings and Westmorland slate roof" to its "shallow segmental arch with deep moulding" above the entrance and inscription of 'County Court' on "heavily foliate ground".
It is also flanked by several other grade II listed buildings, from numbers seven to 14 on Church Lane, Barclays Bank on the corner of Church Lane and Church Street, Oldham's War Memorial and the Church of St Mary and St Peter on Church Street.
M B Heritage and Planning Ltd said: "These buildings form a notable heritage assemblage around Church Lane which share group value and setting."
Henry Tanner was knighted in 1904 and some of the architect's other notable works includ the County Court and Inland Revenue Offices in Warrington, the York Post Office, the New Post Office in Leeds and the Post Office Savings Bank in West Kensington.
In Oldham, the building is considered to stand on one of the oldest intact streets in the borough.
The proposal includes no external work will be carried out on the building, other than two timber framed windows to the rear.
However, the plan outlines splitting the ground floor's existing main hall space into two apartments while the office space will be adapted into two more apartments.
The stairs and "circulation spaces" will be retained, including the remaining entrance, while new stairs will be inserted to provide access to the part ground floor mezzanine level.
The ground floor mezzanine will be adapted to provide the fifth flat.
The first floor will make way for two more apartments where existing modern partitions will be removed and new division walls installed.
The hall spaces, formerly the main courts, will also be subdivided to form five duplex apartments with stairs inserted into each of the units.
Finally, the third floor will contain flat 15 with no alternations to the existing arrangement of space proposed.
MB Heritage and Planning Ltd said this plan poses no significant impact on the external appearance of the building, nor poses any harm to the other listed buildings within its vicinity.
However, the heritage assessors found the division to form new apartments would impact on the original layout of the county court building, particularly the main hall and its chambers at the ground and first-floor levels, as well as the installation of new stairs.
To minimise harm, it suggested keeping original decorative elements intact, such as its cornices, coving, rails, architraves and skirting boards, and its timber flooring and ceiling, as well as carrying out restoring work where elements have become damaged.
Photographs show a planning notice was erected in the area but received no objections from residents.
Oldham Council approved the plans on February 8.
Got a story? Email me olivia.bridge@newsquest.co.uk
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