The ‘Old Bank’ in the centre of Bath could soon be turned into a restaurant.
The Old Bank on the High Street in Bath | Image © Google / Street View 2024
The building opposite the Guildhall on the High Street has sat empty ever since the branch of Natwest in the building closed six years ago.
Now Florian Rusta, of Square Bar and Grill outside Bath Abbey, is applying to set up a restaurant in the former bank.
It is the second planning application to turn a vacant bank in the city into a restaurant that Bath & North East Somerset Council has received in the past month.
The council validated the application in December, just one day after a separate but similar application was validated to convert the former RBS bank on Quiet Street into another restaurant. Both are due to be decided by early February.
Under the plans for the former Natwest bank, the ground floor, where a glass vestibule dome creates a “grandiose and dramatic space,” will mainly be open-plan restaurant, with a new bar and a kitchen area.
The first floor would be used for private dining and the vaults underneath the bank would host dry storage, a cellar, and toilets and changing facilities
Until the Natwest branch closed in 2017, the site had been used continuously as a bank since at least 1786 when Bath draper Robert Clement opened his “High Street Bank”.
The current neo-Georgian revival building, which has “THE OLD BANK ESTABLISHED 1760” emblazoned across the top of its facade, dates from 1914.
A planning statement submitted with the application said: “The changes are such that there will be no loss of significant historic fabric or harmful impact upon the understanding, character, or appearance of the building.
“The scheme has been sensitively designed to repurpose the building in a way that retains the significance of the former banking hall and the space which it occupies.”
You can view and comment on the application here.
John Wimperis, Local Democracy Reporter
