New blocks of flats with a modern “mansion house” look could soon be built on the historic Bath Press site on the Lower Bristol Road.
How the western half of the Bath Press development could look | CGI Image © Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios / City & Country
Work began on building flats behind the iconic facade on the eastern half of the former print works in March after developer City & Country bought the site last year.
Now the developer has submitted a separate planning application to “improve on and supersede” what had been planned for the as yet unbuilt western half of the site.
City & Country wants to build 220 homes with a unique style on the western half of the site.
The new planning application said: “The scheme introduces a series of contemporary mansion houses, varying in height and architectural detailing, to create a dynamic and visually engaging frontage along Lower Bristol Road and Brook Road.”
The planning permission granted for the whole Bath Press site in 2016 would have seen terraces and blocks of flats built across the western half of the site.
The proposed layout of the new blocks | CGI Image © Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios / City & Country
In their place, the new application seeks planning permission to build six Superman shield-shaped blocks surrounding two courtyards. A separate terrace of affordable housing would run alongside Brook Road.
The courtyards will be diagonal to the road in order to “maximise solar efficiency”.
The planning application said: “These sheltered, green amenity spaces provide high-quality communal areas for residents, supporting both wellbeing and social interaction within the development.
“Bath Press West has been carefully designed to act as a sensitive transition between the emerging developments along Lower Bristol Road and the established residential character of Oldfield Park to the south.”
Redevelopment has been a long-awaited chapter in the long history of the site. Pitman shorthand inventor Sir Isaac Pitman first opened a phonetic institute on the site in 1889, which became Pitman Press and later Bath Press.
The building went through several changes, with the Art Deco facade built in phases until 1926. The Bath Press closed in 2007 and the building was demolished ten years later, with just the facade and chimney left standing.
Today, this stretch of the Lower Bristol Road is one of the most rapidly changing areas of Bath. Alongside the Bath Press development, new student accommodation and the Bath Western Riverside are being built across the street.
You can view and comment on the planning application here.
John Wimperis, Local Democracy Reporter
