Landmark building to be knocked down

A “DISTINCTIVE” Victorian building which was sold for £1.6m last year will be demolished.

The Rise in Penhill Road in the Cardiff suburb of Pontcanna was sold at auction in October for a massive £1.6m – double its asking price.

The 19th-century freehold office building is on a 0.61 acre site and has been most recently used as council offices for the local authority’s Youth Offending Team.

It is next to Llandaff Fields at the corner of Penhill Road and Cardiff Road.

Cardiff council has granted permission for the building to be demolished despite objections.

Councillor Iona Gordon wrote an objection to the authority which said: “The Rise is a Victorian building of character in the romantic Italian style. The tower and the roofline are distinctive and the whole building is part of the local Pontcanna and Llandaff heritage scene.

“If this historic building is demolished it will have a negative impact on the street scene. It will also send a precedent for other historic buildings such as Suffolk House on the corner of Llandaff Road.

“There is great concern locally about the Rise.”

Cardiff Civic Society has also objected. They said it was a “landmark building” and the society urged the council to “preserve this interesting building”.

“Penhill Rise deserves to be sympathetically restored and its tree-lined landscape to remain, as both elements add immeasurably to the character of the region,” they wrote.

A statement from chairwoman Nerys Lloyd-Pierce said: “Cardiff has lost too many characterful, historic buildings for the city to be able to lose any more.”

In the papers which say the demolition has been approved, the council’s conservation area team says while they “share” the disappointment of the objectors, “I cannot envisage a scenario where the council can influence this process in terms of any architectural or historic interest of the building”.

Before the auction, Marc Morrish, head of auctions and auctioneer at Seel & Co, said: “It’s a landmark building positioned on the edge of Llandaff Fields.

“The site has very easy access to the city centre, the nearby suburbs of Llandaff and Pontcanna and is also close to the independent Howell’s and Cathedral schools.

“It’s a site that will offer huge potential to a buyer and plenty of options for development.

“The new owner will have a variety of options.

“That could include the conversion of the existing building, getting rid of some of the newer additions and repurposing the plot or totally doing away with the existing building and redeveloping the site, obviously subject to obtaining the necessary consents.”