This is what Lendal post office will look like as a steakhouse

Plans for the former Post Office on Lendal to be transformed into a branch of a chain restaurant have been submitted.

YorkMix reported last month that steakhouse chain Miller & Carter had applied for a licence to take over the building.

The company has now applied for permission to turn the ground floor and basement into a restaurant, as well as installing new signs outside the venue.

And a spokesman for Miller & Carter confirmed that there are currently no plans to move the war memorial inside the building honouring York post office workers who died while serving their country.

‘Vitality and viability’

The planning statement says post office fixtures – including the counters, lighting and booths – will be removed to make way for the restaurant to be redecorated.

It adds:

• The application proposals will bring the former post office building back into use and increase the vitality and viability of this part of the conservation area.

  Therefore, on balance it is considered that the impacts identified are outweighed by the public benefit of bringing the building back into a viable use and the positive spin-offs to existing business premises, many of which are listed and/or contribute significantly to the conservation area.
  

The upper floors are currently used as offices and will not be affected by the scheme, according to planning documents.

The Post Office was built in 1884 and the branch closed in April, when services moved into WH Smith on Coney Street.

The planning application says the building was also formerly a telephone exchange – understood to be one of two main telephone exchanges in the city centre. The other was in Parliament Street.