The former Crown Post Office at 63-65 High Street would become nine flats behind a kept shop front. Neighbour comments close on 12 October and a decision is due by 9 November.

The former Crown Post Office on Barnet High Street would be turned into nine flats under an application now open for comment. The owner has applied for prior approval to convert the sorting office, the offices behind it and the upper floors, while keeping the street-facing ground floor as a shop unit. (Barnet Council, application 26/3331/PNE)

Neighbours have until Monday 12 October to comment. The council must decide by Monday 9 November. (Barnet Council, 26/3331/PNE, important dates)

What is proposed

The application covers 63 to 65 High Street, EN5 5UU. It was received on 11 September and validated on 14 September. The council lists the applicant as a Mr Cardinali, with a High Street agent, Sam Bennett of Convenience House at 224A High Street. The case officer is Zakera Matin. (Barnet Council, 26/3331/PNE, further information)

The nine homes, as set out in the agent’s planning statement, are:

  • four studio flats for one person, between 38.5 and 45 square metres
  • four one-bedroom flats for two people, between 50 and 51.7 square metres
  • one one-bedroom duplex of 77.1 square metres on the second and third floors above the shop

(Planning statement, 26/3331/PNE)

Three of the one-bedroom flats and a studio would go into the vaulted former storage room on the ground floor behind the shop. A fifth ground-floor studio would use the small office building beside the old staff car park. The two studios and the duplex above the shop would keep the big front windows and be dual aspect. The last flat sits above a new communal bin and bike store in the two-storey office block at the rear.

There would be no car parking. The applicant offers a legal agreement so that residents of the flats cannot obtain on-street parking permits. The statement points to the High Street’s public transport score of PTAL 5, the bus stops outside and High Barnet tube station a short walk away.

The shop at the front, with its small basement, stays commercial and would be sealed off from the flats. Staff would use an existing side door; the public would keep the High Street entrance.

A building the council itself calls ornate Edwardian

The Post Office was built in about 1903 to 1904 in red brick and stone, in what the applicant’s heritage consultant calls a Neo-Jacobean Revival style. It is locally listed and sits inside the Wood Street Conservation Area. The council’s own conservation area appraisal picks it out as an example of “ornate Edwardian” architecture and as a standout example of a Dutch gable, according to the planning statement. (Planning statement, 26/3331/PNE)

The features that give the front its character are listed in the application:

  • a carved royal coat of arms above the ground-floor window
  • the initials “ER” in the stonework of the top-floor gable
  • the arched, gated passage at number 63 through which post vans once reached the sorting office
  • the integrated red letter box below the main windows

The heritage statement concludes the building has “low to medium” architectural, artistic and historic interest, resting almost entirely on the front elevation, with a “much-altered interior contributing little if anything” to its significance. It says the conversion would have “no impact” on the building, the conservation area or the settings of the listed 114-118 High Street and the locally listed 59-61, 85 and 90-94 High Street. (Heritage statement, 26/3331/PNE)

The Post Office counter itself has not gone from the town. The statement says the business “has vacated the property, relocating to the other side of Barnet High Street”.

Why this is not a normal planning application

This is a prior notification under Class MA of the permitted development rules, not a full planning application. Class MA lets a commercial building change to homes without full permission, provided the council does not object on a short list of grounds. Those grounds include transport and highways, contamination, flooding, noise from nearby businesses, natural light to every habitable room and, in a conservation area, the effect of losing ground-floor commercial use on the character of the area.

That last point explains the shape of the scheme. By keeping the front shop, the applicant is trying to head off the conservation-area test. The statement also says Class MA “does not allow for changes to the exterior of the existing building”, so the front would look the same. A daylight report from BRE is cited as showing the ground-floor flats meet the standard.

The council cannot weigh the general planning merits, such as whether more flats on the High Street are a good idea. It can refuse only if the scheme fails one of the tests, or grant prior approval with conditions.

The same trend, three doors along

The Post Office is one of three office-to-homes prior notifications validated in Barnet in the past fortnight:

  • 27 Station Road, EN5 1PH: offices to two homes (26/3454/PNE)
  • 10 St Albans Road, EN5 4JX: offices to two homes (26/3213/PNE)
  • 63-65 High Street: the Post Office, nine flats

Each follows the same route, with the same short list of tests. Our planning applications page explains how to search the register and what the different application types mean.

What it means for you

If you live or trade near the Post Office, the window to comment is short. Comments must reach the council by 12 October, and they should address the Class MA tests rather than general objections. Points about how nine extra households would park, about bin collection from the rear yard, or about light and noise for the flats are the ones the council can act on.

The shop front stays, so the High Street frontage is unchanged. What changes is the yard and buildings behind, which have been empty since the counter moved across the road.

If prior approval is granted, work could begin without a further planning application, though building regulations approval would still be needed. The council’s decision, and any conditions, will appear on the register under 26/3331/PNE.

Sources

Image: The former Crown Post Office, High Street, Chipping Barnet. Photo by Philafrenzy, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons