MAJOR plans to transform some of the remaining parts of the city’s famous porcelain factory have been revealed.
Several buildings at the former Royal Worcester Porcelain factory in Diglis, Worcester, would be converted into new houses and apartments, a gym, shops and restaurants, and offices according to plans by Barnett Property Group.
A new gym and swimming pool, office space and car parking and electric charging points for cars and bikes, would also be built as part of the wider work as well as more flats and two and three-bed townhouses with roof gardens.
Berkeley Homes, which has converted large parts of the area into housing in the last 15 years, did have permission to build 40 apartments alongside a new restaurant but the work was never finished.
A planning application to convert the Throwing House in Princes Drive into six apartments has been submitted to Worcester City Council – with the application also providing more details on the overall project and what would be built.
The work would eventually see six sites across the historic factory transformed as part of the ‘Waterside’ development.
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Each site would have to be subject to a separate planning application that would then need its own decision from Worcester City Council.
A statement said: “It is intended that the project is phased over a period of time and the exact timings and order of development will become apparent on the success of each proposal at the planning stage.
“However, it is also intended that on completion, the project's overall and final usage is shared between the six individual sites on a residential level.”
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The grade II listed Bone Mill was partly renovated by Berkeley Homes in around 2009 with a view to turning the building into a new restaurant – but remained unfinished.
The outside of the building was restored during the work to protect it from flooding, but no potential restaurateur came forward to move in – despite it being put on the market for several years.
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The latest application said the lack of interest in the building as a restaurant was an “indication” that older plans needed “some adjustments” to make it more appealing – and an “excessive” focus on protecting the history of the building meant the building had been left “incomplete and unused.”
“It may be the case that within the previous scheme, insufficient floor space was made available to prospective businesses due to the excessive retention of existing historic features,” a statement included with the application said. “In turn this may have resulted in not enough covers being made available to create a viable business.”
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More flats have been proposed for the Bone Mill alongside a potential new restaurant, museum or offices.
The four-floor Gilding House has already been partly converted into apartments by Berkeley Homes and more flats would be built under the new plans – similar to those proposed for the Throwing House.
The building known as ‘site six’ off Mill Street would be demolished to make way for a two-storey ‘coach house’ with new apartments.
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