A planning application to turn the empty bank at 63 High Street into a three-bedroom home has been submitted by Matsim Properties Ltd.
The plans show a three-storey home, with a bedroom, en-suite and bike and bin stores on the lower ground floor.
The site of former HSBC (Image: Google Maps)
The scheme says it will keep the building’s historic features, and it is believed to have been designed by renowned architect Sir Edwin Lutyens.
Born in 1869, he designed many English country houses, war memorials and public buildings, and played an instrumental role in the construction of New Dehli in India.
He was described by biographer Christopher Hussey as being “widely held to be our greatest architect since Wren if not, as many maintained, his superior” during his lifetime and by architectural historian Gavin Stamp as “surely the greatest British architect of the twentieth (or of any other) century”.
Features of the building including the fibrous plaster ceiling, wood panelling, marble and parquet floors would be kept.
HSBC closed in June 2023 and the building was put up for commercial rent, but drew little interest.
HSBC said branch visits had fallen by 65 per cent over five years and that 97.5 per cent of transactions were carried out online.
The planning report says: “The property’s limited frontage, poor accessibility, and unsuitability for modern retail or wholly office use render it commercially unviable.”
A marketing report said the layout put firms off, citing poor visibility from the street, no commercial bin store and problems meeting modern fire rules.
Because the building has only one entrance, the report says a single home is the only viable way to keep the old banking hall features.
It sits in the Lewes Conservation Area.
The plan needs South Downs National Park Authority approval and the applicant says it would protect the building’s heritage and bring more housing into the town centre.
Matsim Properties Ltd says the conversion would give the empty building a long-term use.