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Search the Public Notice Portal Once a familiar sight as the bank’s major Calderdale branch, the Barclays Bank building in Halifax town centre could soon house four businesses instead of one.
Barclays closed its Commercial Street branch in Halifax two years ago, ending the bank’s last remaining branch in the borough.
The bank said it was closing the branch because customer behaviour had changed significantly and most customers were using digital or alternative banking services instead.
Now a Halifax-based company wants to give the building a new lease of life.
Developers Darsons Home Ltd have applied to Calderdale Council planners seeking permission to sub-divide the premises on the ground and basement floor levels into four commercial “Class E” units.
Under planning rules in England, a Class E unit is a commercial property that can be used for things such as a shop, office, cafe or restaurant, gym, health service, nursery, or certain light industrial uses.
The building is not statutorily listed but is situated within the Halifax Town Centre Conservation Area and forms part of a coherent historic commercial frontage, a supporting heritage statement with the application notes.
With its look being the significant thing, the proposal retains the building, its established commercial use, its principal fabric and the full architectural composition of the upper floors, say the supporting papers..
External intervention will be confined to inserting two glazed entrance doors within existing the ground-floor shop front openings, if planners agree – these will follow the established proportions and glazed character of the frontage and do not require removal of the stone piers, cornice, upper facades or roof form, argues the application.
The modern internal banking fit-out and later commercial fittings have limited heritage value – the principal significance is in its exterior, says the statement.
“The development preserves the factors that allow the building to contribute positively to Commercial Street – its footprint, height, stone materiality, façade hierarchy, bay rhythm, roofscape and upper-floor architectural detailing.
“It maintains active commercial uses at ground-floor level and provides additional independent entrances without fragmenting the overall composition,” argues the applicant.
The application, number 26/00541/FUL, and supporting papers can be viewed on the council’s Planning Portal.