The historic former Barclays Bank branch in West Kirby is set to become a dental surgery with residential accommodation above.
An application has been submitted requesting permission to make alterations to the listed structure on Grange Road to enable a change of use.
The branch closed in January 2021, with Barclays blaming declining use, with only 153 customers using it exclusively for banking.
Now, applicant House of Payne Ltd, has submitted a proposal for it to become a dental surgery, with staff facilities and an apartment on the first floor, with the existing flat on the second floor also retained.
The application proposes minor interventions to enable the change of use and conservation of the building, including the insertion of a “pebble” pod in the banking hall, with a mezzanine floor on top of it.
A heritage statement submitted with the application states the plan will “bring new life back to these parts of the building and will enable many people to enter the building to appreciate the restrained architectural splendour of the banking hall, as well as its exuberant exterior”.
It says the building has “high architectural interest, as a good example of an early 20th C[entury] bank building in the free Baroque style, illustrating the continued fashion into the Edwardian era for bold revivalist styles”.
It adds: “This proposed use as a dental surgery will sustain and enhance the significance of the building and be a viable use which is consistent with its conservation.
“It is proposed that part of the first floor will be converted into a residential apartment and that the whole of the second floor will remain a residential apartment.
“This proposed use will ensure the optimum viable use of the upper floors of the building, will sustain and enhance the significance of the building and be a viable use which is consistent with its conservation.”
The application can be viewed at https://online.wirral.gov.uk/planning/index.html?fa=getApplication&id=226886
HISTORIC BANK’S PAST
- Purpose-built for the Bank of Liverpool at the start of the 20th century
- Designed by local architect Edmund Ware, it was completed in 1907
- It subsequently became Martins Bank, and then Barclays Bank in 1969
- It was Grade II listed in 1993, and closed its doors in 2021