Fresh discussions around planning application 24/1174/FUL – submit your own comment!
“By 2025 restoration works to Hotel and its surrounding designed landscape will be completed and the site flourishing with the highest attention paid to its exceptional architectural, historic, landscape and cultural heritage values.” [Richmond Hotel Conservation Management Plan]
Throughout a 200 year history the Sidholme Hotel with its numerous layers of spatial interventions is an evolving story. Located in the Elysian Fields it consists of three main components, the original Richmond House, the neighbouring Cumberland Cottage and the resplendent Music Room.
The Sidmouth Conservation Study describes Elysian Fields as “‘the one area of the town which retains, almost unchanged. the character and atmosphere of Sidmouth as it would have been in the early years of the 19th century”. The Conservation Area consists of a group of five `cottage ornes`, with picturesque views through the woods over the town and sea beyond. Originally constructed in the 1820s as a speculative development by William Barrett all the villas had a stucco finish, in white or beige and reflect the Regency taste for colonial artifices. They have all been subsequently altered and although most have been considerably extended each remains listed as architecture of special interest. Accessed from a winding secluded drive they are all well concealed in a well-balanced distribution of mature deciduous and evergreen trees and shrubs. Elysian Fields, in Greek mythology, were the final resting place of the souls of the heroic and virtuous
The most outstanding property is Sidholme which has some remaining Regency details but with its extensive additions has been transformed into a Victorian mansion of character. A lithograph of 1826 painted by artist George Rowe shows it was a modest ‘box’, three bays wide beneath a pair of hipped roofs. Its verandas on the southern façade and the Oriental lantern canopies that shade the first-floor windows are of the period. In common with other Sidmouth developments the villa is rendered in white throughout including stacks, roofs are slate and there is much adornment. Characteristic features such as windows and balconies all combine to give the elegance and refinement which is typical of the genre. Three storeys in height with gables of different sizes and ornamental bargeboards Sidholme is the largest of the villas. Fenestration with an emphasis on marginal glazing bars and drip eyebrow mouldings is decorative and together with delicate balcony ironwork tracery are a particular Regency embellishment…
As mentioned in Graham’s piece there is once particularly exquisite part of this complex – and some five years ago, a plea went out to help save “the exquisitely renovated Sidholme Music Room” – a campaign which was ultimately successful.
The hotel is now in new hands, with plans submitted to further develop the site – with this Heritage Statement put together for the new owners Richmond Estates.
The Richmond Hotel Conservation Management Plan has been commissioned by our client to inform conservation and management of this GII* Listed building and its gardenesque landscape.
This GII* building, formerly the Sidholme Hotel is undergoing comprehensive renovation and restoration in advance of its reopening in 2024. Our Conservation Management Plan has been adopted by the client and will deliver the following vision
By 2025 restoration works to Hotel and its surrounding designed landscape will be completed and the site flourishing with the highest attention paid to its exceptional architectural, historic, landscape and cultural heritage values. The Hotel’s success will be based in the confident celebration of its quality, both as a heritage asset and in the exceptional service and experience provided to guests and non-residents alike. Through commercial excellence and success we will ensure the ongoing viability of the site for this and future generations.
We are committed to retaining the site as a single asset, maintaining its built and landscape fabric informed by detailed understanding of what matters and why, and seeking opportunities to work with everyone that cares for this building for the benefit of the local community. The owner has submitted the planning application 24/1174/FUL > The Richmond Hotel Elysian Fields Sidmouth EX1 – which looked as though it might pass, but fresh discussion about its merits is now underway.
The following message has been sent to John McGregor, member of the VGS steering group, who has been involved in the restoration of the Music Room – and is from Melanye Luscombe of building project developer Lusland. This is being published with permission:
Subject: Richmond Hotel – We need your help!
We really are in need of your help! We need local support from the residents of Sidmouth to help us with our planning application.
We thought it was moving towards an approval, only to find that Jill Himsworth our planning officer is recommending it for refusal due to policy E18 (loss of Holiday accommodation. We believe this has nothing to do with policy, we think they have not had time to assess it properly, only two consultee’s have responded to the application, instead of eight, so they have pulled it in on a simple policy to make us have to reapply, pay another £9,000 fee and to give them a further 8 weeks to assess it properly.
They have also mistakenly advertised it as a minor application instead of a major application (their mistake) so need to re advertise it.
I have tried to call in the application to the committee for a decision as we do not have the grace to wait through the winter for them to make a decision as this will compromise the building further and will mean that we will lose our funding that we currently have in place to secure this site. As we have proved our application is the only commercially viable option for the building, nothing else comes close to supporting this building for the future. Without the planning and if we lose the funding, Suzy and I will have no option but to walk away. We cannot take on Millions of pounds of upfront debt and continue to renovate the main listed building, if we are unable to convert and sell the cottages leasehold to repay that debt.
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We have proved beyond a doubt that this is the only possible option to protect the building and we were told in our pre-app and in Historic England’s response to our application, that they would take a commercial view, but clearly they are not doing that.
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We feel this building deserves us to fight for it, so I am appealing to the local people of Sidmouth to comment on the planning portal in favour of our application, I am hoping their support might enable Suzy and I to be allowed to fight for this building at committee. We wondered whether you and anyone else who feels strongly about saving this building, might write a letter of support and add it to the comments on the planning portal.
Although the VGS is not making a contribution [whether objection, support or neutral] it would certainly encourage residents, visitors and concerned citizens to explore the application further – and even make their own comment.
