The developer who won permission in 2021 to turn the old Mineral Water Hospital in Bath into a hotel “remains committed” to delivering the conversion.
The Mineral Water Hospital in central Bath
The Grade II* listed building in the city centre has been vacant since 2019 when the Royal National Hospital for Rheumatic Diseases (RNHRD), to give it its official name, relocated to a new building on the Royal United Hospital site at Combe Park.
The historic hospital was originally planned, designed and constructed to provide access to treatment in the thermal waters of Bath for the ‘sick poor from Britain and Ireland’.
Royal Assent was given in 1830 for the mineral waters to be diverted into the hospital from the King’s Bath spring.
In 2021, Bath & North East Somerset Council granted Fragrance UK (Bath) Ltd planning permission and listed building consent to change the use of the hospital to a 160-bedroom hotel.
The site is bounded to the north by Upper Borough Walls, to the east by Union Street, and to the west by Bridewell Lane. The two main buildings, the east and west wings, are connected via a bridge over Parsonage Lane.
Planning consultants acting for the developer have this month submitted a listed building application to install four wall ties which they say are needed to support scaffolding over the apse roof on the east-facing side of the west wing facing Parsonage Lane to enable repairs.
Revised plans for the RNHRD site from 2020 | Image © Fragrance Group
They state in the application: “The applicant is committed to delivering the approved scheme of the conversion of the former hospital into a lifestyle hotel.
“The scheme will secure the long-term conservation of an important heritage asset, bringing a vacant site back into use and benefitting the wider public interest.”
The council is requested to grant listed building consent “as expeditiously as possible”.
The planning reference is 26/00057/LBA and the deadline for comments is 12th February.
