Luxury hotel with pool, roof terrace and restaurant planned for Ribble Valley high street
Exciting plans have been launched to transform a shop into a boutique hotel with restaurant and spa facilities.
Ronnan Corporation Ltd has tabled plans for a change of use and extensions to the side and rear at 69 King Street Whalley, formerly a designer clothes shop.
What do they want to do?
The application proposes alterations and extensions at the ground floor level to provide a large restaurant space with kitchens, as well as a bar and reception, private dining room and lounge. Extensions to the rear would provide two hotel bedrooms and along the George Street frontage and a semi-enclosed dining area. On the first floor and in the roof space there would be a further bedroom with “ancillary hotel facilities such as a pool, steam room and sauna”.
The applicant also proposes outdoor dining space along the King Street frontage and its return to George Street by re-introducing the original stone boundary wall.
Roof terrace and pool
The original part of the building will remain unchanged, with the main extension rising two storeys with a roof top terrace over. There is a pitched roof to both ends of the roof terrace with a dormer running the full width of the side elevation. The dormer will have a large glazed element to aid views out from the terrace and pool and the remainder will be clad with plain clay tile hanging.
Parking
The applicants own/control the existing car park at the western end of the retail and residential block on George Street where 10 spaces will be allocated and white lined for users, In addition, they will have a private 16 space “Valet Car Park” at The Sidings, in close proximity to the site.
The agent for Ronnan Corporation Ltd states their client believes the proposal “is to a high quality of design which is contemporary but reflects the best of the existing building in design and materials and will enhance the building”. They add that that it will “preserve the character and appearance of the Whalley Conservation Area”
Ronnan Corporation is a Whalley-based commercial and residential developer, which is aware of the local landscape, having recently completed residential apartments on the upper floors of the adjacent block to the rear of the application site at 1-7 George Street.
History of 69 King Street
The site was built in approximately 1910 as a bank, occupied as the District Bank post war, and eventually absorbed into the Nat West Bank Group. The village bank closed in approximately 1997 and was acquired by Rossendale based Hurstwood Developments who sold it to the most recent owners, Checkmate ladies fashion in around 1998. The retail outlet closed in 2021 and was marketed for approximately two years, attracting no interest for renewed retail use.