The former Lloyds Bank Regional Headquarters Building Corn Street
Harbour Hotels (HH) has planning permission to convert the former Grade II listed HSBC bank, 49-51 Corn Street to hotel use. The current proposal is to increase the scope of the project to include the next door property the Grade II* listed former Lloyds Bank at 53-55 Corn Street into a single hotel. It is sad to see Bristol’s rich heritage of Corn Street banks abandoned by their former owners. Unfortunately, this extravagant listed building has no place in the world of online banking; it is an extraordinary legacy.
The Society supports a change of use that will secure this unoccupied building’s return to economic use and its future maintenance. HH plan no significant external alterations. Although the Society supports the development, there are wider issues. The Council’s Public Realm and Movement Strategy for Corn Street, states, ‘There is scope for removal of traffic and the creation of a new animated street.‘ There is potential conflict between the policy aspiration and the current one way access to the site from Corn Street. A hotel development would compromise any attempt to pedestrianise Corn Street. A shared space scheme to give pedestrians priority could be a solution. The Society assumes that the scheme will provide adequate internal waste storage facilities to enable HH to comply with the Council’s Old City emerging policy to remove all waste bins from the streets.
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Bristol Civic Society’s response [PDF, 350KB] Right-click to download, click to view.
John Frenkel
johnfrenkel@blueyonder.co.uk