An application has been submitted for planning permission to make internal alterations at 7–11 East London Street (site of the former Locanda da Gusti).
Proposed works under the applications (Refs 14/01692/FUL and 14/01692/LBC) envisage retaining the premises as a Class 3 food and drink restaurant.
On the ground floor, the idea is to:
- create a new window-sized opening within an internal stone/masonry wall
- knock down 'some existing' walls to the rear to create additional restaurant space and an accessible toilet
- reopen the middle entrance to the premises (currently blocked up from the inside) and create another lobby area to match the existing two
- reinstate a blocked up window to the rear of the property
- install a dumb waiter between ground and basement.
New external signage and decoration would be the subject of a separate advertisement consent application.
The company behind the proposals is New Town Brasserie Ltd, established in January this year with one director, Neil Murray Robb, and giving its trading address as 77 Dundas Street.
Robb is also listed as Managing Director of Robb Response 24 Limited since 2009 and Director (Chartered Quantity Surveyor) of Robb Reinstatement Limited since 2006. The latter was founded by Robb in 2000 and specialises in building repair and reinstatement for the insurance and property management industries.
Expect braised leek.
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Unsuccessful planning and listed building applications were made in 2011, followed by successful planning and listed building applications in 2012 (Breaking news, 16.11.12).
In the latest iteration (Ref. 14/01686/LBC), the owner tries to combine the light-enhancing aspects of his successful applications with a reconfigured version of his earlier, refused, rooftop terrace proposal. The plan this time is to move the new terrace away from the sides of the building and into a central recessed area above the dining room.
‘This would provide much needed external amenity to a top floor flat with no access to a garden’, reads the Design Statement, and ‘in this location any activity on the roof terrace would be hidden from the street’.
Spurtle has no particular objection to the scheme, although we are unclear whether the roof terrace’s entire decking structure as well as any activity in it would be hidden from passers-by.
Needless to say, few things get past the pavement-level residents of Bellevue and nothing is hidden from the Neighbour upstairs.
