Two Grade II listed buildings on the Old Steine are set to be turned into student housing – with plans for some of them to double as short term lets in the holidays.
Jensco Group wants to convert 52 and 52 Old Steine – two Georgian townhouses next to Marlborough House – into 39 student studio flats.
Under the plans, seven flats overlooking the Old Steine would also be let out to tourists for up to 14 weeks a year.
The developer has already got permission to turn the houses and modern offices behind into 26 student rooms.
This application increases the number of flats by building a one-storey extension on top of the modern block behind the townhouses.
The whole site, which includes 55 to 58 East Street, has previously been used as offices. The houses have been vacant since 2020, when Learning Technologies Plc vacated during the pandemic.
The application, written by Lewis and Co Planning, says: “52- 53 Old Steine originally started life as fashionable residences, and with some care to maintaining all period survived internal features, could be restored to a suitable form of dwellings again.
“The former offices to the rear and incorporating 55 to 58 East Street have been so compromised and altered that they offer a more flexible approach, when considering our proposed scheme for student accommodation.
“The proposal creates 39 student rooms plus 152.5sqm of student communal space. This equates to approximately 3.9sqm of communal space per student.
“The individual rooms are generous in size and accommodate en-suites and kitchen space.
“Many of the rooms are extremely generous in size, with over a third being in excess of 30sqm.
“The student rooms are presented as studios, in order to allow for greater independence of students. Further, a large social space is presented which hosts a communal cooking, dining, gaming and entertainment area.
“The studios which front the Old Steine are to be used as short-term holiday lets over the summer months. These units were chosen as they are the larger units, have the most historical value, and benefit from sea views.”
It says all the rooms overlooking the Old Steine have modern plasterboard walls and imitation cornice and skirting details, dating from an extensive refurbishment in the mid-90s.
The only significant original features are the rooflight over the staircase, and the staircase itself, which runs from the fourth floor all the way down to the basement with original bannisters.
The houses were marketed as offices by Carr & Priddle from 25 March 2021. A variety of prospective tenants viewed it, including Brighton Film School, a private members club, a developer who wanted to turn it into an Airbnb, a games developer, but all said the layout didn’t work for them.
The application includes a lengthy document outlining the history of Brighton, the Old Steine, and Georgian architecture.
When discussing how large Georgian homes were used, it includes a cartoon called Life in the Georgian City, showing two Regency ‘exquisites’ taking tea in a London garret.
It says: “The regular recurrence of this image- overdressed youths presenting an affluent appearance and indulging in a few fashionable luxuries while living in pathetic squalor – suggests that it may, in reality, have been a fairly common condition.
“Note the turned-up bed [left-hand side] and the ingenious disposition of domestic necessities.” [Whiskey flask].”
Looks good, need to make sure these buildings don’t fall into disrepair because of disagreement over some minor alterations.
The original haunted staircase.
FFS, not more student accommodation, when will it stop.
How about converting them into homes for permanent residents? So much student accommodation has been built lately.