{"id":777406,"date":"2026-09-21T03:04:20","date_gmt":"2026-09-21T03:04:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/777406\/"},"modified":"2026-09-21T03:04:20","modified_gmt":"2026-09-21T03:04:20","slug":"tenby-house-linked-to-middlemarch-author-seeks-holiday-let-go-ahead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/777406\/","title":{"rendered":"Tenby house linked to Middlemarch author seeks holiday let go-ahead"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The owner of a seafront home which is said to have inspired a prominent Victorian novelist is seeking permission to continue using it in part as a holiday let.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">An application to Pembrokeshire Coast National Park said Gwynne House, in Tenby, had been operating as a holiday let prior to its current owner acquiring it in 2021.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The house is Grade-II listed and forms one of a pair of early 19th-Century houses overlooking the town&#8217;s harbour, in a conservation area.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">A plaque on the front states that George Eliot, the pen name of Mary Ann Evans who wrote Middlemarch, had been inspired to write her debut novel after staying there in 1857.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">An application for a certificate of lawfulness allows an applicant to stay at or keep a development which has not had planning permission if they can provide proof of occupancy or use over a prolonged period.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">A supporting statement accompanying the application said, back in 2014, the park authority had approved an application for Gwynne House to be mixed-use, with residential accommodation at basement level and guesthouse accommodation on the ground and upper two floors.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The property was purchased by Pavel Stepanek in July 2021 and a witness statement said Gwynne House was already operating as a holiday let at the point of purchase, despite only having permission to be a guesthouse, &#8220;demonstrating that the holiday letting use had commenced prior to his acquisition of the property&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;Following acquisition, the property underwent a period of required refurbishment between late 2021 and early 2022. Upon completion of those works, Gwynne House resumed operation as a self-contained short-term holiday let and has continued in that use thereafter. The residential use and flat at the basement continued under the 2014 consent.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The owner of a seafront home which is said to have inspired a prominent Victorian novelist is seeking&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":777407,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[84,59,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-777406","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-gb","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777406","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=777406"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777406\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/777407"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}