The Restoration
Guessens House is Grade II* listed and is within the Welwyn Village Historic Core Conservation Area. We’re proud and very excited to be leading the compliance process on this local historic building, as the building control service for Welwyn Hatfield. This includes conversion of the existing main building to create 4no. dwellings, including internal alterations to enable subdivision, the partial demolition, and extensions to the rear of the buildings to create a further 2no. dwellings, minor external alterations to all buildings, and alterations including demolition of single-storey extension and replacement with two-storey extension to Little Guessens to form 1no. dwelling. The key consideration is to preserve and enhance the listed building and conservation area.
Since the 1980’s the site has been used for conference and residential purposes. It is described in a 2003 planning permission as a residential training establishment and study centre for missionaries. In 1977 Little Guessens was granted planning permission for conversion to an old people’s home. The use appears to have evolved over time and the property was used largely for activities such as religious teaching and training, small-scale charity events, storage of religious literature, office and administration space, with permanent staff accommodation and temporary residential accommodation for students and visitors.
The building has since become onerous to maintain for the current occupants due to its size and heritage status, which is particularly an issue as the occupier is a charity. The occupiers, therefore, moved to another property elsewhere in the country and sold the site.
The vertical subdivision and the associated internal works, closing off and opening up spaces to form the separate dwellings, have been led by the heritage aspects and nature of the various parts of the building. Demolition and extension is only taking place where it is appropriate to do so and the result is the 7 dwellings proposed and under construction.
All the rooms within the core will be retained in their present form, maintaining the ethos of the building. The existing entrance hall will follow into the staircase hall as originally planned. The room used as Edward Young’s study would be unaltered. The room he used as a bedroom will also be unaltered. The 18th-century kitchen would be retained as a kitchen and by subdividing the 1920’s northern extension with staircases, bathrooms, etc. minimum structural alteration to the historic core will be achieved. The northern 1920’s extension would be increased at the ground floor level in a style replicating the 1920’s details.
Little Guessens, formerly a stable, had been substantially altered mainly in the 1950s. The proposal is to replace the utility single-storey rear extension with a more appropriately designed two-storey extension.
Read more about Guessens House from the developer Netherdown