City West have submitted outline planning application to build a new three-storey, 27-apartment block on a vacant former car park in Eccles town centre.
The plot is at the corner of Barton Lane and Corporation Road, to the rear of Eccles Gateway Library, opposite the Royal Oak pub.
Both of these neighbouring buildings are Grade II-listed and of special architectural and historic interest.
The plans are to construct 18 one-bed flats and nine two-bed flats.
20 car parking spaces would be kept on site.
Early stage plans for the elevation of the three-storey block
Five historic trees on the site would be kept “to retain the leafy nature of this section of Barton [Lane]”.
A heritage assessment is required as part of the application because the new block could affect the setting of near neighbours Eccles Library, built in 1907, and the Royal Oak, constructed in 1904.
The assessment, by Ian Bright Architects, states that the proposed building will be lower in height than the 2007 extension to Eccles Library and will be set back from Barton Lane so that it doesn’t spoil the view of the Royal Oak.
View across Corporation Road past Royal Oak pub on the left – Google Street View
The full site, with Eccles Library behind and Orbit House office block in the distance
It adds that the development will bring new landscaping and planting to the vacant plot, which means it will actually improve the setting of the Edwardian pub.
It will also “prevent the site being used as a dumping ground and provide a regeneration of the immediate area,” say the plans.
The proposed site was originally the site of the previous Royal Oak pub, which was demolished in 1902 as part of the notorious Timothy Street slum clearance.
This saw the the first ever council houses built on the newly named Corporation Road.
In the 1960s the Eccles Health Centre was built on site but this closed in the 1990s and was merged into the Eccles Gateway at the adjacent library.
City West won permission this week to build a new five-storey, 24-flat extension to its College Croft tower block, opposite Eccles tram stop.
In October last year the social housing association got approval from the council for a £2.25m project to build 20 flats and a pharmacy in Little Hulton.
The joint applicants are Old Trafford-based real estate developers Mangrove Estates Ltd and City West Housing Trust.
The agents are Grays Architecture Ltd.
You can view the outline application on the Salford City Council planning website under the reference 15/67427/OUT
