Redevelopment plans have been submitted for a landmark pub in Neath town centre.
The Big Cam, formerly known as the Cambrian Hotel, in Windsor Road, was built in the early 1900s and has been primarily used as a pub ever since.
Earlier this year it was sold with the new owners looking to renovate the building by converting the upper floors into 10 new flats and turning the ground floor into either a gastro pub or offices.
Jeremy Stephens from Night Designs, the company behind the redevelopment, said if the plans were granted permission the existing pub would remain open while construction work on the apartments took place.
The application for the building, which is opposite the train station, involves both one and two-bedroom apartments.
Mr Stephens, who is from Neath and has a background in the restaurant trade, said he believed a gastro pub-themed restaurant could work well in the town.
He said: “Ideally we will have really nice modern apartments and a gastro pub.
“The building needs restoring – the upper floors have been empty for some time.
“They won’t be run-of-the-mill apartments, we are talking about a £1m project.
“The pub will stay as a going concern for at least the next 12 months.”
Inside another historic Neath area pub:
However, Mr Stephens said that with interest from housing associations in taking on the flats there was a possibility they might also want the ground floor as office space.
The proposed redevelopment would see the dormers removed from the front of the building with skylights installed.
The majority of the original elements of the building’s façade will be retained.
Planning documents submitted to Neath Port Talbot Council state: “From a heritage perspective the proposed development provides an opportunity to secure a sustainable future for the site, having been vacant and declining in condition for a number of years, despite consented schemes for alternative authorised uses.”
Mr Stephens is the nephew of Andrew Vicari, the Welsh artist born in Port Talbot to Italian parents who went on to paint some of the world’s most famous people including the actress Sophia Loren, former Chinese leader Mao Zedong, Russian president Vladimir Putin, and Monaco’s Prince Rainier.
The planning application number is P2019/5495.
