Ludgate Hill offices creates recipe for restaurant

THE Birmingham office of a business recovery specialist is set to be converted into a new restaurant.

Poppleton & Appleby consultant Martin Coyne has applied to Birmingham City Council for permission to convert part of the firm’s office in Ludgate Hill.

The application seeks to change the use of the lower ground, ground and first floors of the building for restaurant purposes. The conversion would see a new shop frontage installed but the second and third floors would remain in use as offices.

BPN Architects has been commissioned to complete the design brief for the plan, which it said would need to be done sensitively as the building lies in the Jewellery Quarter Conservation Area.

It said the building had been substantially altered during its life with just the top two floors of the façade remaining as they were originally built.

The entire internal structure has been demolished and re-built. Internal loadbearing walls have been removed in favour of a frame structure.

The ground floor portion of the facade has been re-built to allow parking within the footprint of the building behind a roller shutter door.

It said the building had been well constructed and it could safely be re-modelled, adding the existing frontage from the first floor upwards was architecturally valuable and should be retained in its original form.

The plan would see the ground floor façade refurbished to remove the roller shutter door and increase the amount of glazing at street level.

The design statement says the scheme also seeks to address the negative aspects of the building which include the panel on the front elevation that disguises beams from the previous conversion.

It also said the re-use of the existing building as restaurant space with offices above was characteristic of several other buildings in Ludgate Hill, while the scheme made economic sense because it would maximise the commercial value of the building.

“The proposal at No.35 (Ludgate Hill) does not impact on the neighbouring buildings. It is a minimalistic design that does not detract from the listed building or the wider conservation area,” said the architects in their report.

“The improved frontage and connection between the building and the street will enhance the area, bringing activity to the street.”