Does anyone live in or have bought a grade 2* listed house?

[Swifey]

And tried to do any alterations etc? And what if any problems did you encounter? I would love to hear your experiences. Thank you.

My DH has worked for people with this grade of house. You will be very limited in the alterations you can make and it varies with each property and each heritage officer. Your best bet by far is to contact them in your local planning dept. It depends to some extent why the property is listed and you can look this up for precise details but it will be to preserve the outstanding features.

Many people find they cannot do what they want and have to compromise.

I live in one.

Firstly - check the local precedents on terms of work - if your neighbours put a stonking great extension on the back last year, you will likely be able to do the same

Consider compromises - sometimes you have to accept they'll only allow single glazing but can push on other things

Consider how much of the house is original and in what state it is in. Ime they want you to keep what's there but are happy to let you change anything newer. If you do your renovations sympathetically to the period that also helps

parents had grade 2 and that is much easier than 2*.

Everything had to be passed by the officer. Some things were nuts. eg, they were allowed to open up some decrepit rooms which had been partitione din the 60s and make them back into one big room, the new kitchen. Fine. BUT the place where the old passageway entered the kitchen ws red brick floor and the rest of the floor was old flagstones, as was the corridor outside. That patch of red brick had to stay.
Trouble was, the brick butted up against the flags, which were unevenly worn, so there was a bit that stuck up. After my mum had fallen flat on her face twice, they quietly removed the red brick and filled the gap with another flag. Looked loads better, much much safer, but the heritage person would have had a blue fit had he known.

He had a say over which paint, which colour pointing (looked rubbish) Insisted on old materials for some things where it was just a pain, and not visible.

It drove my parent's mad, and they were in principle in agreement with trying to retain and enhance the period features.

One thing that annoyed them was that it was falling down with the roof in dire need of replacement. Without my parents it would have rotted but they had very little say over what they could and couldn't do.

As Bubbles says, each particular conservation officer at each local authority will view things differently, and have a different interpretation of what might be possible.

Generally speaking internal alterations are easier to gain approval then external changes. Changes that "materially affect the character of the building" may be difficult to get approved.

The best way is to try and work with the conservation officer to reach a mutually agreeable solution, and not to treat them as an obstruction.

The only real thing we would want to do is to knock down one internal wall to create a bigger kitchen? Can we talk to the people at planning before we offer on the house?
Thanks for all your replies!

Yep, if it is something important to your future enjoyment of the property I'd definitely speak the conservation officer at the local planning dept before you commit to the property. They may well be prepared to meet with you at the property in order to give you an indication of whether such an alteration might be possible.

You can check the recent planning history for the property on line (Council web site) to see if a previous scheme has been refused.

Is the internal wall original/old or a newer partition. If it's older, then you may well not be allowed.

You will need to speak with the conservation/Heritage Officer rather than a Planning Officer - you can ring the local Council and see what their policy is on pre-application advice.

Having worked as a Planning Officer, I would never but a Listed Building.

The likelihood of being permitted to remove internal walls on Grade II* properties is very low, unless the wall in question is not original to the phase of the house in which it is situated.

The exception is when the wall was built without permission subsequent to the listing of the property.

If you buy a listed house, especially II* or I, then you need to be prepared (and happy) to live with the configuration of the house as it is. The whole point of the listing is to protect and preserve the house as it was at the point of the listing.

Open plan living is a modern trend and implementing it permanently destroys the fabric of heritage assets.

Grade II* buildings are also subject to comments from Historic England so you may want to contact them as well as your local conservation officer. As pp say removing an original wall would unlikely to be supported imo.

I don't know why anyone would move into a listed building with the view of removing and changing certain features?
I understand when something becomes unsafe (like the PP with the red brick floor; removing that one brick meant no broken noses!) but otherwise I just don't get it

I live in a grade 2 listed black and white cottage (not grade 2*) and I bought it because I love the quifkiness/history of the place. I was prepared to accept a small kitchen, single glazed windows for the enjoyment of having a unique house. Also insurance was slightly more.

If you plan to make lots of changes I would avoid. Unlikely imo that you would get away with removing an internal wall unless the said wall was not part of the original listing. check what is in the listing and contact the conservation officer if said wall could be a deal breaker.

We own one, never a problem to do any alterations for us. The very difficult ones to deal with are the grade 1 properties. We have had no problem and have had help from a good conservation officer, and the right architects will get planning for extensions if you can find them.

We don't want to do many alterations, just one. The kitchen is just too small; I cook only from scratch, and usually have between 12 and 20 people at Easter and Christmas and we entertain a lot, it would just not be feasible. I adore the house. Unfortunately the kitchen is only 14 foot square.

I dream of a 14 ft square kitchen

The kitchen is 4foot x 3.5foot? That is small!

chickenoregg
I guess because alot of houses aren't original as such , an 18c house might have had bits added /moved/ changed through the 18c /19c , I would see it as an evolution of that.

Or is it 14’ x 14’? That’s not very small.

14ft square, and 14sq ft are rather different things!

Yeah! I wonder which it is!

I have a grade 2* house and was able to significantly expand the small kitchen when the survey revealed a hidden inglenook fireplace and boarded up ceiling/ wall panels. If you truly love the house, take a closer look and talk to local planning officer. There may be achievable options available to you.