Listed Building To Co-Living
Southgate, Winchester
A listed building on Southgate Street tested for nine- and ten-bed co-living schemes above a retained shop, with private and shared gardens worked into the plan.
Feasibility In Brief
The Brief
Listed buildings are the hardest conversion category: every internal alteration needs justifying, and co-living intensity multiplies the scrutiny. The client wanted to know whether a ten-bed co-living scheme could work at 23 Southgate while keeping the existing shop trading on the ground floor.
What We Found
The sketch study worked floor by floor through the building, testing en-suite provision against the existing wall layout, retaining the shop frontage, and allocating the rear garden between shared amenity and private space for the ground-floor rooms. Proposed ensuites and new partitions are drawn against the existing fabric so the listed building impact is visible from the start.
Our Recommendation
The study shows a ten-bed co-living layout with the shop partially retained, sunken garden amenity for the basement room, and a shared garden strategy. The client can now brief heritage consultants and approach pre-application discussions with a concrete scheme rather than a hope.
The Proposed Layout
Option 1 of 2. The ten-bed scheme takes co-living rooms across the basement, first and second floors above a partially retained shop, with a sunken garden for the basement room. The nine-bed scheme trades one room for larger shared space on the same footprint.
What The Client Received
Feasibility Overview
The proposed design, planning route, key constraints, commercial position and a clear Go or No-Go recommendation.
Planning Research & Risk Analysis
Site-specific policy research, planning precedents, appeal decisions and a risk register with cost implications.
Space & Standards Review
Bedroom, amenity, ceiling-height, kitchen and facility requirements checked room by room against the design.
These are real client reports, so they are not published here.
The Decision
A clear route forward before purchase.
Two layouts, and one conversation to have before either is chosen. The study proved that co-living works in the building at nine or ten rooms with the shop still trading, and that the difference between the two comes down to how much shared space the conservation officer and the licensing team will want to see. Because the building is listed, the next step is not a planning application but a heritage conversation: the drawings show every new partition and en suite against the existing fabric, which is exactly what that conversation needs. The client can brief a heritage consultant and go to pre-application with a real scheme rather than a hope.
Recommended roadmap
- 01Heritage statement and listed building advice
- 02Pre-application with Winchester, planning and conservation
- 03Measured survey
- 04Full planning and listed building consent
- 05Technical design
- 06Construction
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