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From: Sent: 30 January 2025 23:28 To: CO, Planning Appeals Subject: FW: PA/23/01066/B
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Follow Up Flag: Follow up Flag Status: Flagged
Ref: NETH/AP25/0002 Appeal against the non-determination for construction of two houses to replace existing single house, Leyton, Victoria Road, Douglas , Isle of Man. IM2 6AQ
We understand you have written to those persons/bodies which made comment on the Planning Application 23/01066/B and inviting further submissions in relation to this appeal. Below please find the e-mail submitted by the Isle of Man Victorian Society to the Planning Office on 8th October 2023 at 18.21. In paragraph three it clearly states ‘Our principal objection to this application relates to the demolition of Leyton which is far more important to our architectural heritage than perhaps appreciated.’
Given the fact that not only did we write in relation to this application but we clearly made our objection known, then we ask that you formally extend the same invitation to the Isle of Man Victorian Society as you have done to others.
Yours Caseworker Isle of Man Victorian Society Marjon House , Alberta Drive, Onchan, IM3 1LX
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From: Sent: 08 October 2023 18:21 To: 'DEFA, Planning' <[email protected]> Subject: PA/23/01066/B
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To: The Secretary, Planning Committee, DEFA, Murray House, Mount Havelock, Douglas. From: The Isle of Man Victorian Society, Marjon House ,Alberta Drive, Onchan, IM3 1LX Special Interest Group. Re: PA/23/01066/B Construction of two houses to replace existing single house, Leyton, Victoria Road, Douglas. We write in connection with the above application as on the Planning List dated 22nd September 2023 and firstly would advise that up to date there is no yellow notice displayed in a prominent readable location at the property. The application should be re-advertised once the notice is properly displayed and the time scale for comments extended accordingly.
We note that with the items on line is a copy of the refusal at Appeal of PA/21/01504/B which was for the erection of an additional dwelling within the garden of Leyton, Victoria Road, Douglas. Among the reasons for refusal were : ‘the proposal would create a departure from the established development density on this part of Victoria Road, the proposal would disrupt the general rhythm of the overall group of buildings and result in an obtrusive built development within an area containing mainly large houses within generous gardens associated with the dwellings.’ The reasons for refusal equally apply to this application which seeks to construct two houses where there should only be one.
Our principal objection to this application relates to the demolition of Leyton which is of far more importance to our architectural heritage than perhaps appreciated. We note the applicant’s comments on the condition of the property which others dispute as being well over stated. That would appear to be the case. Glencrutchery / Little Switzerland.
Glencrutchery House, Farm and Lands became the property of Thomas Kneen (1852-1916), advocate and partner in the largest law practice in the Island. In May 1890 he sold a building plot adjoining what is now called Glencrutchery Road to William McAdam, a builder. The plot was 1,940 sq. yds. upon which he built a single dwelling ,completed in 1893 and called Oakleigh. It had a ground floor of Ruabon brick, a first floor section of half-timbering above the entrance whilst the rest of the walls were tile hung to match the roof covering. The dwelling was designed by Mackay Hugh Baillie Scott.
By deed dated 12th April 1892 Kneen sold a plot of level ground with a steep escarpment by the wrack road to the farm connecting it with the shore. The plot was 9,155 sq. yds. to Richard Maltby Broadbent . Again a single dwelling was built on the plot which was also designed by Baillie Scott and completed in 1893. It was called Ivydene. The ground floor front elevation is of Peel sandstone whilst the storey and a half above is in half-timber. Other areas and the rear elevation is tile hung. The roof is tiled in Rosemary tiles.
The third plot to be sold was 2,133 sq. yds. and this was to Baillie Scott himself who designed his own house. It was alongside what is now called Victoria Road. The deed was dated 5th May 1893 but the property was well under construction by that time. The single property built on the site has a foundation stone dated 1892 and 1893 is carved on the spandrel above the front door and also appears on an elaborate rainwater head on the front elevation. The dwelling has a mixture of diapered red brick , half-timbering at first floor level on the gable above the entrance and on two gables at the rear as well as a degree of tile hanging elsewhere .
In 1896 Kneen (by now Captain of the Parish of Onchan) sold a plot to his junior partner in the law firm of Dickenson and Kneen ,William Lay . This was situate further down Victoria Road on the same side as The Red House. The plot was 1,820 sq. yds. and was subject to a covenant restricting it to one dwelling only. Work commenced on building a dwelling and a date stone of 1896 with the initials ‘W L’ intertwined was built into the eastern gable at ground floor level as the work proceeded. The conveyance wasn’t formalised until a deed dated 6th April 1897 and refers to ‘the dwelling house recently built.’ The property has a ground floor of Ballanard brickwork with sliding sash windows. The first floor is half-timbered and has two oriel bay windows which along with the other first floor windows are casement windows. Baillie Scott only used sliding sash windows on the first house he designed which was at Port St Mary and thereafter it was only casement windows so that tends to rule him out as being the architect of this competent and well executed design. It has a lower rear section with two smaller bedrooms which have dormer windows with flat roofs in a manner used by Baillie Scott. William Lay’s brother ,James, had a large drapers/men’s outfitters shop designed and built on the corner of Duke Street and Lord Street in 1894 (for many years James Lay’s then Peter Luis). It was designed by George Kay, architect of Ramsey but later of Douglas. He designed in the style of what today we call ‘Victorian’. In August 1897 he designed a pair of semi-detached houses in Queens Pier Road, Ramsey for F W Forrest. They had half-timbering on the peak of the bay windows but it was very pedestrian and fell along way short of the competent hand that designed Leyton and so rules him out of having been the architect.
On the other side of the road from Leyton an L shaped road was constructed to the designs of James Cowle for Thomas Kneen. It linked Victoria Road with the former wrack road leading to Little Switzerland and the shore. Armitage Rigby the architect of the British Hotel produced the deed plans for Kneen’s sale of eight plots on this square of land. He had been in practice in the office of his brother-in-law Faulkner Armitage in Manchester but retired early, in 1889, to the Island due to ill health. He took up farming of his late father-in-law’s farm ,introducing new and improved methods. Towards the end of 1895 there was an open architectural competition run by Woolf’s Brewery for a new British Hotel on North Quay. He submitted a design and to his surprise his ‘New Antique’ scheme for a large half-timbered building won. It received building byelaw approval in January 1896 and was complete and opened in September 1896. From then on he eased himself back into practice. He didn’t produce the deed plan for William Lay’s plot and there is no evidence of him having got back into practice when work started on Lay’s new house.
Reverting to the new layout of building plots on the other side of the road three maiden sisters called Jull purchased the lower corner plot on Victoria Road by deed dated 13th January 1897. It was a virgin plot at that time. The other seven plots were purchased by Mark Carine a builder by deed dated 16th December 1898 but not recorded until March1899.The dwelling erected for the Misses Jull was in a typical ‘Victorian’ architectural style and was a detached house.
All the houses Carine built were designed by Armitage Rigby and were semi-detached. Carine did however sell a plot facing Victoria Road to fellow builder William McAdam by deed dated 12th July 1899. The deed was registered that month but McAdam had already built a pair of houses (Holly Bank and Myrtle Bank ) on the site to the designs of Baillie Scott. The houses designed for what became known as ‘Little Switzerland’ by Armitage Rigby were in an arts and crafts style but had very little half-timbering in their design which mainly comprised walls finished in roughcast. The first pair to be finished was Engadine and Grindlewald (now called Coardailys) had the ground floor elevations built in Ballanard brick with roughcast walls above. The barge boards were in carved oak and in addition to a continuous pattern had the date 1898 carved into them. Leyton is unique amongst all the Little Switzerland houses being the only one to have a full first floor entirely in halftimbering. It was the first of the ‘smaller’ houses to be built and is the only one not to be designed by Baillie Scott or Armitage Rigby. It’s demolition should not be permitted and it should be afforded protected status.
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Caseworker IOM Victorian Society
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