New lease of life for town’s old museum
THE PREMISES COULD BE TURNED INTO HOUSING
A FORMER museum which once housed the town’s priceless artefacts is set to come back into use.
The former Burton Museum and Art Gallery could be turned into flats 40 years after it closed down.
Part of the building was later used as a gymnasium which is believed to have closed in the 1980s and has remained relatively empty ever since.
The artefacts were removed following the museum closure in the early 1980s and it remains disused and is now decaying, according to the latest plans.
Hereford firm Joyn Property Ltd has now been given approval by East Staffordshire Borough Council to turn the first and second floors into eight one-bed and five twobed apartments. The building was originally Burton Police Station, built in 1910 before the First World War as a replacement for the older police station on the same site, which dated back to 1848.
Police left the building in 1915 and it later became the Burton Museum and Art Gallery.
It is not a listed building, but does fall within the George Street Conservation Area.
The latest plans reveal the ground floor would remain as retail. It currently has business based in it, including real ale shop Brews of the World.
Part of the ground floor is empty, having been previously occupied by Italian restaurant Veneziaa, which relocated further along Station Street.
JMI Planning, which has been appointed as agents, said in a report to the council: “The ground floor premises have undergone various changes of use but despite attempts to introduce new uses within the upper floors they have lay disused for a significant period of time.”
“The works will also serve to repair areas which have begun to decay owing to the significant period of time in which the building has lay vacant.”
The main internal staircase will be retained, alongside the ground-, first- and second-floor lobby floor space, which contain details likely dating back to the 1915 - and potentially even 1910.
There has been no interest from potential purchasers over the years to buy the site, which may be due to the size of the space and the lack of windows in some areas, a planning report says.
The report says those factors mean the building is not a suitable environment for common upper-floor town centre uses such as office space.
In the application, the report argues that due to the proposed occupiers being “young professionals” and the fact the flats would be close to the town centre, car parking would not be needed.
The works will also serve to repair areas which have begun to decay owing to the significant period of time in which the building has lay vacant.