The Cross, Kingswinford
The Cross, Kingswinford
AHC’s client, JD Wetherspoon, acquired The Cross, a listed building that had been unoccupied for some years, and sought to extend, alter, and refurbish the building in order to reopen it as a public house.
Asset prepared a detailed Statement of Significance for the building, advising on its heritage constraints and opportunities, and liaised with the scheme architects during the design of the application proposals.
When the scheme had been fully drawn up, Asset prepared a Heritage Impact Assessment. This argued that, while the proposals would result in harm to the listed building, this would be at a ‘less than substantial’ level and outweighed by the heritage-related benefits of the scheme, including securing the building’s ‘optimum viable use’.
This argument was endorsed by the Council’s Conservation Officer, with planning permission and listed building consent being granted in 2019.