PLANNING permission has been granted to turn much of an important historic building in the centre of St Austell into 12 flats. 

Tregonissey House on Market Street was originally built in 1870 as Walter Hicks's first steam brewery for St Austell Brewery which he had founded in 1851. 

In more recent times, the prominent four-storey building, which is located within the St Austell Conservation Area, has been used for offices. A previous planning application a few years ago saw permission granted for nine flats.  

Now St Austell Properties Ltd has been given the go-ahead by Cornwall Council planners to increase that number to 12, made up of seven one-bedroom flats and five two-bedroom flats on the upper floors The lower ground floor level of the property will retain its commercial property use under the proposals. Tregonissey House has parking for seven vehicles. 

The planning application, submitted on behalf of St Austell Properties by Coast To Country Town Planning, stated that the proposed flats would be sold on the open market.

Experts say Tregonissey House is a significant historic building and that its surviving industrial features, including stone chimneys and a roof vent, make a positive contribution to the character and townscape of the conservation area. 

The property remained in use as a brewery until production moved in 1893 and today it occupies a prominent position within the medieval street pattern of the town close to the grade I listed parish church. 

By 1893, the brewery had outgrown the premises which are now valued as a surviving part of the late-19th century period of prosperity and urban expansion in St Austell. The brewery relocated from the town centre to its current site on Trevarthian Road. 

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St Austell town councillors had made no objection to the Tregonissey House plan when they considered it earlier this year.