Former Ross-on-Wye bookshop to become flats

A historic former bookshop in the heart of a Herefordshire town is to be converted into flats.

Grid Property of Hereford has applied for permission to create two “maisonettes” in the four-storey, grade II listed 51-52 High Street, Ross-on-Wye, which until 2020 housed the Ross Old Book Shop.

The two would both have three bedrooms, replacing an existing four-bedroom flat currently on the upper floors, which already has its own door onto the street.

Apart from minor alterations, the building’s exterior “will remain generally unchanged”, the application says.

A rear courtyard area would be split to provide private residential space and bike storage for each flat.

Pre-application advice from Herefordshire Council confirmed the conversion would be acceptable in principle, the application says, adding that previous attempts to keep the ground floor in commercial use “proved entirely unsuccessful”.

Comments on the application, numbered 232903, can be made until November 9.