Plans to replace "aged" beach property with luxury home

Monday 17 June 2019

Plans have been submitted to demolish a home near Beaumont Tower and replace it with a "modern and sustainable" four-bedroom alternative, featuring a zinc roof and an entirely glazed façade.

Socrates Architects have drawn up the proposals for the architectural development, which they say aims to use “an aged building, in need of replacement” to not only create a “modern and sustainable family dwelling, but also greatly enhance the setting of the adjacent listed tower.”

'The Beach House', as it is known, is a standalone three-bedroom, two-storey timber house. The architects described is a being of poor construction and thermal quality, which make it unsuitable for refurbishment.

Pictured: The Beach House is on la Route de La Haule, next to Beaumont Tower. (Google Maps)

It is located opposite the Gunsite Café, next Beaumont Tower, a standard Conway pattern tower from the 1780s, which is listed as Grade 1 for Achirtectural and historical interest. 

The date at which the ‘Beach House’ was built is unknown, but it appears an Ordnance Survey Map from 1935.

As part of the plans, the house would be destroyed to make way for a four-bedroom house of roughly the same size and angle, with “ample amenity space” and three parking bays.

Pictured: A sketch of the proposed development. (Socrates Architects)

The house would be built over two-storey with a single storey extension to the North and West sides, which would replace two wooden garden sheds.

The development would use a brown-coloured zinc roof to match the masonry of Beaumont Tower with timber cladding and a painted render on the ground floor.

The façade would be completely glazed which Historic Building Consultants, Antony Gibb Ltd., said would “introduce a new element in a suburban townscape that is largely one of solid walls with smaller openings.”

Pictured: The façade of the new house would be completely glazed.

The Consultants, who compiled a Heritage Impact Statement, concluded the development would not be harmful to the tower, despite an increased ridge height and its glazed facade as the “original setting has already been substantially altered during the course of the 20^thcentury.”

The Design Statement written by Socrates Architects indicated that all the neighbours had been approached during a consultation period and that “much care” had been taken to preserve the northern neighbour’s southern views.

Pictured: An aerial view of the proposed redevelopment.

As a result the building will have no northern or eastern windows on the first floor and the southern balcony has been chamfered to prevent any overlooking.