One of the attractions for visitors coming to Rye is to walk around the cobbled streets admiring the architecture and wonderful buildings, some of which date back centuries. Many of these incredible buildings are deemed to be of special architectural or historic interest and are categorised as listed and to preserve them are protected by regulations which limit what you can change both internally and externally. Most listed buildings are Grade 2, buildings that are particularly important and of more than special interest are listed Grade 2* and the buildings with the highest significance are listed Grade 1.
Rother District Council have an enforcement section who have the power and ability to enforce action on owners of listed buildings who either make changes without their consent or allow their properties to fall into a serious state of disrepair. They can serve notice on landlords forcing them to repair / reinstate their properties and if these warnings are ignored, they also have the power to take possession of the offending properties.
If you wander along Mermaid Street and look up at No 9 (virtually opposite the entrance to the Mermaid Inn) you will see that this Grade 2 listed property has been neglected for many years and is now in a dangerous condition. I have been writing about this property since February of this year Mermaid Street, what’s happening? The last article was published in Rye News this July entitled 9 Mermaid Street -spot the difference?
Nearly one year on, nothing has been done despite assurances from RDC that “matters are in hand” and the building is a danger to passing pedestrians and potentially an accident waiting to happen. Rye Town Council and Rye Conservation Society are both acutely aware of the situation but are powerless to act and the body which has the power to act has seemingly done nothing. The system has failed and a Grade 2 listed property in one of the busiest tourist destinations in the town remains an ugly blight. How can this situation be allowed to continue?
9 Mermaid Street is not the only listed property which has been allowed to fall into a state of semi dereliction, 20 and 20a Landgate is another sad example, you know the one, next to the Queen’s Head on Landgate with boarded up windows on one of the main roads coming through town, visible to all who pass by. According to locals it’s been empty for 20 years, now in a state of disrepair and looking very sad indeed. But thankfully things may soon change as the property is due to be sold at auction this November via Clive Emson auctioneers as covered in this week’s Rye News entitled Buy into Rye
20 and 20a Landgate.
If the property sells and subsequently repaired and restored, then there will be one less vacant, Grade 2 listed property in urgent need of attention, it just leaves 9 Mermaid Street as one obvious property in Rye which continues to slip through the net but then there are two more in central Winchelsea which are also neglected and in need of urgent repair but that’s an article for another day.
Image Credits: Nick Forman , Clive Emson Auctioneers .
The owner of 9 Mermaid Street was living in the house until 4-5 years ago. Enforcement action was taken thereabouts to strip the ivy from the frontage and repair the roof, but the owner left the house for a care setting and refused to allow any other works to be done. He died last month and the house has been cleared, so the property will probably be sold once probate is granted, but restoration will be very costly
I have loved Rye since reading E.F. Benson’s Mapp & Lucia books many years ago. I was a member of the Mapp & Lucia Society and went on their tour of the town in the 80’s. I have stayed there twice travelling from my home in Lancashire.
I saw a recent walking tour of Rye on UTube and was sad to see the changes which are in danger of spolling it’s charm. I hope the negelected properties can be restored and I look forward to being able to visit this special, unique and magical town again.
We hope you come again and we hope that by then the neglect has been tackled and corrected. Rye is such a beautiful place.
The town is more at threat from Airbnb! The houses may get refurbished but they don’t now add to the community.