Skerritts of Nottingham Ltd The Secretary of State for the Home Department, Transport and the Regions The Harrow London Borough Council
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judge | MR GEORGE BARTLETT QC |
| Judgment Date | 22 March 1999 |
| Judgment citation (vLex) | [1999] EWHC J0322-4 |
| Court | Queen's Bench Division (Administrative Court) |
| Docket Number | CO/2656/98 |
| Date | 22 March 1999 |
[1999] EWHC J0322-4
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE
QUEEN'S BENCH DIVISION
(CROWN OFFICE LIST)
Mr George Bartlett QC
(Sitting as a Deputy Judge of the Queen's Bench Division)
CO/2656/98
MR C KATKOWSKI [MISS A ROBINSON-JUDGMENT ONLY] (Instructed by Actons, Nottingham NG1 5DB) appeared on behalf of the Applicant.
MR J HOBSON [MR A SHARLAND-JUDGMENT ONLY] (Instructed by the Treasury Solicitor, London SW1H 9JS) appeared on behalf of the Respondent.
Monday, 22nd March 1999
This is an appeal pursuant to section 65 of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 against the First Respondent's decision, given by letter dated 26 May 1998, to dismiss the Appellant's appeal under section 39(1) ground (a) of the Act against a listed building enforcement notice concerning works to a former stable block at Grimsdyke Hotel in the London Borough of Harrow. Section 7 of the Act provides:
"Subject to the following provisions of this Act, no person shall execute or cause to be executed any works for the demolition of a listed building or for its alteration or extension in any manner which would affect its character as a building of special architectural or historic interest, unless the works are authorised"
Under section 1(5):
"In this Act 'listed building' means a building which is for the time being included in a list compiled or approved by the Secretary of State under this section; and for the purposes of this Act —
(a) any object or structure fixed to the building;
(b) any object or structure within the curtilage of the building which, although not fixed to the building, forms part of the land and has done so since before July 1, 1948,
shall be treated as part of the building."
Under section 9(1) it is an offence to contravene section 7, and under section 38(1) the local planning authority may serve a listed building enforcement notice where works to a listed building are carried out which contravene section 9(1).
The listed building enforcement notice identified as the listed building to which the notice related:
"the stable block lying within the curtilage of the Grade II* Listed Grimsdyke Hotel, Old Redding, Harrow Weald."
It specified as the alleged contravention of section 9(1):
"the removal of the existing timber frame windows and the installation of white plastic double-glazed windows, without the benefit of listed building consent."
It required the removal of the unauthorised white plastic windows and the reinstatement of traditional timber windows and required the works to be completed within six months of the date on which the notice took effect. The Appellant appealed against the notice on, among other grounds, ground (a) as set out in section 39(1) of the Act, namely that the stable block falls outside the curtilage of the Hotel. This ground of appeal was advanced because the appeal building is not listed in its own right, and accordingly the Council's ability to issue an effective listed building enforcement notice in respect of the works to the appeal building depended upon it being within the curtilage of another building, the Grade II* Hotel. If the appeal building is within the curtilage of the Hotel then the appeal building is to be treated as part of the listed Hotel building by virtue of section 1(5) of the Act.
The appeal was conducted by written representations. In his decision letter of 26th May 1998 the Secretary of State recorded that:
"an officer of the Department has visited the site and has considered the written representations made in support of the appeal, those of the Council and other interested parties."
In relation to the question now in issue, he said:
"The Secretary of State has also had regard to the arguments put forward as to whether the Stable Block falls within the curtilage of listed Grimsdyke Hotel. He agrees with the officer at paragraph 11 of his report that PPG15 advises on the test that should be applied as to whether a structure falls within the curtilage of a listed building. For the reason given by the officer, the Secretary of State agrees with his conclusion in paragraph 17 of his report that based on the physical, historical, ownership and information to hand the Stable Block lies within the curtilage of Grimsdyke Hotel, has formed part of the land since before 1948 and therefore should be treated as part of Grimsdyke."
The officer (to whom I will refer as the Inspector) described the hotel, its surroundings and stable block as follows:
"4. …The hotel stands in a clearing in dense woodland and is set in extensive grounds. To the north of the grounds, there is open farmland and, to the east and south, Harrow Weald Common, a woodland and public open space. There is a water treatment compound set in woodland to the west…
5. The hotel is approached from Old Redding, via a gated entrance, past the South Lodge, a Grade II listed building, and along a metalled road through the wooded grounds. The road forks and the left-hand route continues to a parking area and the entrance to the hotel and the right-hand track swings east to a group of buildings including North Lodge, New Lodge and the Stable Block. Grim's Ditch is an ancient linear defensive earthwork which runs east/west to the north of the main hotel building. It is a Scheduled Ancient Monument. Grim's Dyke Lodge, to the north of Grim's Ditch is a modern annex to the hotel containing 34 bedrooms.
6. Grimsdyke is a two and three storey, former English country house, designed by the architect Norman Shaw for the painter Frederick Goodall (1822–1904) and was later the home of W S Gilbert, the librettist (1837–1911). It is in a romantic, 'Old English', picturesque style and has an irregular plan and was completed in 1872. The landscape grounds, which were laid out prior to the erection of Grimsdyke, have recently been included in the Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest…
7. The Stable Block is some 200m to the east of Grimsdyke. It is L-shaped in plan, with a two storey wing and a single storey wing, and two brick walls complete a square compound in front of it. The approach is along the diagonal to the square from an entrance gate, which is missing, to the main entrance to the building at its inside corner… The accommodation is on two floors and provides bedrooms and communal kitchens and bathrooms for hotel staff. There are also some offices. The building has three tall brick chimneys, a tiled hipped and gabled roof with hipped and gabled dormers, and brick walls with vertical tiling to the upper parts."
The Inspector identified which of the windows had been replaced by plastic ones. He summarised the submissions of the parties, and then went on:
"11. The legal implications of the facts are matters for the Secretary of State; my appraisal follows. Planning Policy Guidance 15 (PPG15) advises on the tests, derived from case law, as to whether a structure is within the curtilage of a listed building. These are: the physical layout of the surroundings to the listed building and the relationship between the structures on the land; ownership past and present; whether the structure forms part of the land; the use or function of the structure and whether the structure is ancillary to the principal building.
12. The Council's sequence of Ordnance Survey plans for the area dated 1865, 1896, 1911 and 1996 demonstrate that the Stable Block was probably erected at the time that Grimsdyke was conceived by Shaw and has been linked to it by the track which remains today since its inception. There is no evidence that other stables served this gentleman's residence and it is likely that the Stable Block provided shelter and accommodation for horses and carriages of the owners of Grimsdyke. The structure is some distance from the principal building but that was not uncommon for a large estate where secondary buildings were sited inconspicuously. This would have been a requirement here where the ornamental gardens had been laid out prior to the erection of Grimsdyke and the aim would have been to avoid disrupting the new planting with ancillary buildings. Despite the seemingly remote siting of the Stable Block, I consider that there is a logic to the layout which supports physical association between the principal building and the structure.
13. Ownership by the former GLC at the time the building was listed in 1969 included both Grimsdyke and the Stable Block together with the intervening land and surrounding grounds. The present freehold ownership of the estate by the Council and its part-lease to the Appellant company continues the unified pattern of ownership.
14. Use and function of the Stable Block have changed during its lifetime. From the representations, following its use as stables, it appears to have been adapted to house motor vehicles for Gilbert then as staff accommodation for the hospital/rehabilitation centre followed by the present use as hotel staff quarters. Although there have been changes in the use of the building from housing horses, carriages and cars (and possibly grooms) to housing staff employed at Grimsdyke, the essential subordinate relationship between the structure in question and the principal building has remained unchanged throughout including the period since the building was listed. It has not been historically an independent building.
15. English Heritage write that the Stable Block, with its tile-hung dormer windows and prominent ribbed chimney stacks, is almost certainly designed by Norman...
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