GLOBAL fans of author Virginia Woolf are horrified that a new building threatens to destroy the view across St Ives Bay to the lighthouse made famous by one of the 20th century’s most influential writers.

Many St Ives residents are also up in arms about the building work, which has started after originally being given planning permission 17 years ago. The application has received 106 comments objecting and none in support.

A revised planning statement was issued on behalf of the applicant on January 8 seeking “minor alterations” to the permission originally granted for a five-level residential building with 12 apartments and associated car parking, cycle and refuse storage, and landscaping at Chy-an-Porth on The Terrace.

Several new objections have since been posted on the council’s online planning portal, including one by Richard Allen who said: “I strongly object to this proposal, both as a resident and as a supporter of the Virginia Woolf Society. There are enough flats already, but very few traces of the town’s literary heritage.

“The view from Talland House is world-famous - it would be criminal to destroy it for ever.”

Woolf’s father bought the lease to Talland House in 1891 and the family returned every summer until her mother’s death in 1895. Woolf later wrote passionately about Talland and St Ives in her memoirs, diaries and novels, most famously in To the Lighthouse (1927), which centres around the view from the house across the bay.

Heritage horticulturalist Polly Carter – who is developing the gardens at Talland House with plantings referenced in Woolf novels and memoirs – is working alongside the Virginia Woolf Society of Great Britain to mobilise Woolf fans worldwide, including prominent scholars, authors and artists, to campaign alongside local residents to safeguard the view and seek revocation of the planning permission.

Cornwall Council’s online planning portal has since been flooded with impassioned comments from around the world, urging the authority to protect this literary landmark.

Peter Eddy, owner of Talland House, said: “In 2022, Talland House was formally recognised as a significant heritage property in Cornwall and awarded a black plaque by the Cornwall Heritage Trust.

“As guardians of Talland House, we are committed to preserving both the fabric of the building and the unique landscape that inspired one of literature’s most iconic works. To compromise or lose the view that shaped Virginia Woolf’s creative imagination would be a travesty for the literary world and a profound loss to Cornwall’s cultural heritage.”

Next year marks the centenary of To the Lighthouse, and Ms Carter has already been approached by international artists eager to visit the site and create works in response to it.

She said: “I am in the process of establishing a curatorial programme to expand opportunities for engagement with Talland in a way that still respects the privacy of its tenants. The view is an essential element that artists want to respond to – and this development will deprive them of that.”

St Ives Town Council objected to the amendment on December 15 and has suggested a new application is submitted or Cornwall Council’s planning department considers a partial revocation of the original permission.