A £30million plan to build an 11-storey hotel, flats and multi-storey car park on the site of a former ITV studio in Plymouth city centre has been given the go-ahead.
Plymouth City Council planners have , from developer Seapoint Capital, which will fill a patch of derelict, sloped land between Derry’s Cross and The Crescent, opposite a listed terrace dating from the 1860s.
The television studios were later used as offices by solicitors Foot Anstey before being demolished to leave an empty site, currently partly in use as a car park.
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The city council has now granted outline permission with a series of conditions for three buildings in a new application which followed the refusal of a scheme in 2019.
But a landmark wall, with a distinctive six-sided hexagon design and blue tiles which some people wanted saved, is set to disappear.
The approved plans are for a 150-bedroom hotel opposite the historic terrace in front of a 300-space multi-storey car park, with a block of 88 flats across a public walkway through the site to Derry’s Cross, and two commercial units.
The main pedestrian access to the 11-floor hotel will be from The Crescent, with a reception, cafe and bar at street level and bedrooms on the upper levels. The car park is on the lower ground behind the hotel, with 13 levels.
The eight-floor block of flats will be in a separate building on the other side of the public walkway, parallel to Athenaeum Lane, which will widen out at Derry’s Cross into a space to be called Athenaeum Piazza fronted by shops on either side.
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A previous scheme was rejected in 2019 because of the layout and lack of housing. The new plans reflected changes following discussions with planners and include 30% of the one- and two-bedroom flats being classed as “affordable”.
The site is part of land once known as Stray Park, which was used as a burial ground for the Royal Naval Hospital at Stonehouse Creek from the mid-18th Century for around 60 years.
Several hundred skeletons have been excavated as a result of recent developments in the area, but the number remaining buried could be up to 2,000.
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A planning report said modern building techniques should mean little or no impact on the bones still there, but a planning condition has been added to monitor work below ground and properly excavate any uncovered remains.
The report said the latest version of the hotel showed a curved design for the double-height ground floor opposite the listed terrace in The Crescent, after a design review panel raised concerns about the “slab-like” proposals of the main building.
During consultation, there were calls to keep or relocate a wall with a six-sided hexagon pattern and a section of blue tiles alongside the main road, which is believed to date back to the television studios built in the 1960s.
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The planning report said officers had lengthy discussions with the developer about whether the wall can be reclaimed or reused in the scheme.
Although they were unwilling to commit to reuse the material because of the difficulties involved in reclamation and the limits it would put on the future design, they were prepared to give the wall material to any interested party who wanted to safely remove it. Anyone interested should contact the developer directly. The appearance and landscaping of the development will be decided in a separate detailed planning application.