Well-known Northumberland hotel The Mizen Head in Bamburgh set to close and become new homes

A well-known north Northumberland hotel and restaurant could close its doors at the end of the summer and be converted into new homes.
Mizen Head Hotel, Lucker Road, Bamburgh NE69 7BS. Image: Google StreetviewMizen Head Hotel, Lucker Road, Bamburgh NE69 7BS. Image: Google Streetview
Mizen Head Hotel, Lucker Road, Bamburgh NE69 7BS. Image: Google Streetview

An application has been lodged with Northumberland County Council for a change of use of The Mizen Head, in Bamburgh, into four residential units.

A design and heritage statement with the plans says that the applicant, Mr R Watson, ‘wishes to convert the existing hotel accommodation to principal residential usage to make the building use financially viable.

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‘The current use will cease at the end of the current season and the premises will be closed as a hotel.’

The document goes on to explain: ‘The applicants purchased the hotel approximately three years ago and now own two hotels and a public house in Bamburgh.

‘The hotel, which initially made a small profit, has been running at a loss for the past few years.’

It adds: ‘The property will cease to run as a hotel in the autumn of this year due to current losses.

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‘As per the accountant’s report, the siting of the hotel significantly reduces the required footfall as most visitors walk to the top of Front Street and aren’t tempted to walk up the hill to the outskirts of the town where the Mizen is situated.

‘This, together with high staffing costs to maintain the sprawling building, makes the hotel unviable in its present form.’

The scheme would see the main building converted into three apartments – a ground-floor, three-bedroom unit, a two-bedroom flat over two floors and another with three bedrooms over two floors – while the former manager’s house, which had been changed into annexed hotel accommodation, would revert to its original layout, as a four-bedroom property.

The proposal would require very few external changes, apart from the removal of a rear chimney and three new matching windows to the rear ground-floor bedroom – which is currently a cellar.

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The existing front door would be retained with separate internal accesses to the three flats and the entrances to the site from Lucker Road would stay the same, although there would be changes to the parking arrangements.