Decision due on Hanley library apartments plan

Plans to convert Stoke-on-Trent’s modernist former library building into an 89-home residential block look set to be approved this week, as planners weigh up regeneration benefits for the city against the loss of a locally listed civic landmark.

Once a powerful symbol of Stoke’s ambition, the former City Central Library in Bethesda Street, Hanley has stood quietly empty for three years since the city council decided to move services less than 500 ft away into a modern office block next to the Potteries Museum.

New plans will see the building converted into nearly 100 apartments and five commercial shop units, if a scheme by Newcastle-under-Lyme developer Stephen Beaumont is successful at the city council’s planning committee on Wednesday, 21 January.

The loss of a modernist former municipal library in Stoke-on-Trent may go unlamented by some – but the six-storey structure was a landmark for the city when it opened its doors to the public on 28 September, 1970.

The tallest building in the city at the time, and built on a former slum clearance, it was designed by City Architect JW Plant in the late 1960’s, and housed the city’s main library and archives.

The city’s new library was built to match the burgeoning ambitions of Stoke on Trent County Borough Council, as the city council was then known, which had centralised its library services in the late 1950’s and hoped to make Stoke-on-Trent one of the best-read cities in the entire country.

When it opened in 1970, the building’s “meticulously planned” interior had shelves for more than 50,000 books and included a 120-seat lecture hall, and study spaces for 150 students.

Hanley’s former City Central library was a landmark for the city when it opened in 1970. Credit: Stoke City Council via planning portal

The former library, which features a distinctive mosiac-style frieze on the rear elevation, mirrored on the canopy over the main entrance, has been locally listed as a building of interest – although attempts to get the building formally listed in 2024 fell by the wayside.

In 2023, and in common with other local authorities with squeezed budgets up and down the country, the city council downsized its services into Two Smithfield, a modern-style office building which was completed in 2015.

The move, along with the relocation of the city’s archive into the Potteries Museum, left the building without a clear future, until plans for 106 apartments were brought forward by Hanley Library Redevelopment Ltd in July, 2023.

The city council refused that scheme in November last year, citing “significant and fundamental concerns” over the design, scale and the impact of a planned four-storey extension on the building’s heritage, describing it as “poorly designed, disproportionate and dominant”.

Under the revised plans, three storeys would be added as part of a scaled-back scheme of 89 apartments, proposals which would also see the building’s distinctive yellow curtain walled cladding demolished and replaced with a brickwork-style facade.

Planning statements supplied by the developer in support of the application argues that the current facade is “extremely problematic” due to its ageing condition, and potential lack of compliance with modern fire regulations.

Hanley Library was described by the city council as a ‘splendid building’ when it opened in 1970. Credit: SCC archive

A heritage statement adds that while harm to the former library’s heritage significance cannot be avoided under the scheme, it has been mitigated “as far as possible” by the new design approach.

The updated designs were not enough to win over the council’s heritage officer, who maintained an earlier objection over the scale of the enlarged building and its impact on nearby heritage assets, but it was sufficient for the council’s planning department.

Stoke-on-Trent’s planning officers recommended the scheme for approval, having decided that the regeneration benefits of the proposals outweighed the loss of a non-designated heritage asset to the city’s skyline.

They say the application would “fulfil a number of policy objectives”, including delivery high-density “city centre living”-style housing, with the commercial elements of the scheme also offering the potential to attract footfall attract people into the city centre.

The proposals will go before the city council’s planning committee this week.

Documentation relating to the scheme can be found on Stoke-on-Trent’s planning portal, under reference: 71068/FUL