Converting a bank branch to a restaurant

A former bank branch is usually the easiest restaurant conversion to get permission for and one of the hardest to build. The use change itself often needs no application at all: since the Use Classes Order was amended in September 2020, financial and professional services provided principally to visiting members of the public sit in Class E(c) and restaurants and cafés sit in Class E(b), and a move between sub-classes of Class E is not a material change of use. The permissions you will need are for everything else: the flue, the shopfront, the signage, the escape route out of a basement full of strongrooms.

So the planning question is not "can I use it as a restaurant". It is "can I ventilate it, service it and evacuate it, within a building designed to resist entry".

Whether the change falls within Class E

Start by confirming three things.

First, what the lawful use actually is. A bank trading as a bank before September 2020 was in Class A2, and the 2020 amendment moved that use into Class E(c). A bank that has been vacant for years still has its lawful use, so a planning history search and the last known use are what matter, not the current state of the premises.

Second, whether the restaurant you intend is in fact Class E(b). A restaurant or café where food is consumed on the premises is E(b). A hot food takeaway, meaning premises where hot food is sold principally for consumption off the premises, is sui generis and sits outside the use classes altogether, so a change into it needs full planning permission. A restaurant with a visible takeaway counter and delivery riders queueing outside will be judged on what it actually is, not on the application form.

Third, whether any condition on an earlier permission restricts the use. This is where conversions come unstuck. A change within Class E is not development, so an Article 4 direction cannot restrict it, because Article 4 withdraws permitted development rights granted by the General Permitted Development Order and this change needs no such rights. A planning condition is different. If a previous permission for the building restricted occupation to financial and professional services, or restricted hours, or excluded food and drink uses, that condition binds the land and the restaurant use would breach it. Removing it needs a section 73 application.

Where any of those three points is uncertain, a Lawful Development Certificate for a proposed use under section 192 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 is the formal route to confirmation, and it is worth the fee before a fit-out contract is signed.

Routing extraction through a protected frontage

This is the real constraint. A commercial kitchen producing cooking odours needs an extraction system that discharges above the roofline, normally at least one metre above the ridge or above the eaves of adjoining buildings, with grease filtration, odour control sized to the cooking type, and attenuation to protect neighbours from fan noise.

Bank buildings make that difficult in three specific ways. Many occupy the ground floor of a building with flats or offices above, which are in separate ownership, so there is no right to run a duct up through the structure. Many have a principal frontage that is listed, locally listed or in a conservation area, where an external flue on the front is unacceptable. And many have deep plans with the kitchen naturally landing at the back of the ground floor, remote from any usable riser.

The practical options, in rough order of how well they are received:

• an internal riser within the demise, where one exists or can be formed
• a rear external duct, painted to match, rising to above eaves level, where the rear elevation is not the principal elevation and is not visible from the street
• a duct within a lightwell or rear service area, boxed in
• a flank wall duct where the building is detached or end of terrace
• recirculating or low-level discharge systems, which are rarely accepted for a full commercial kitchen and should be treated as a fallback for limited cooking only

Each of those needs the odour risk assessed and the system specified. That is the content of a Ventilation/Extraction Statement, and environmental health officers read it closely because odour complaints are the commonest post-opening problem in town centre food premises. The statement needs the cooking type, the extract volume, the filtration train, the discharge height and velocity, and the acoustic data for the fan.

Fan noise is a separate test from odour. Plant noise is normally assessed under BS 4142, comparing the rating level of the plant against the background sound level at the nearest noise-sensitive receptor, which for a town centre unit with flats above is a bedroom window a few metres away. Get the acoustician to specify attenuators and anti-vibration mounts at design stage rather than after a complaint. The scope of that work sits in a Noise Impact Assessment.

Basement vaults, ventilation and escape

Bank basements were built to keep people out. Thick reinforced walls, a single stair, limited openings, no second means of escape, and a strongroom with a door that cannot practically be removed.

If the basement is used only for storage and plant, the issues are manageable: mechanical ventilation, fire separation from the escape route and a sprinkler or suppression system where the fit-out calls for it. If you want covers down there, or a kitchen, the questions become serious. Occupied basements need escape provision that satisfies Approved Document B, usually two independent routes or a protected stair with a limited travel distance, plus smoke ventilation. Forming a second escape through a reinforced wall into a lightwell is possible and expensive.

The planning dimension is that the escape solution often shows on the elevations. A new external stair, a lightwell grille, an enlarged rear opening or a glazed escape door all need permission in a conservation area and listed building consent on a listed building. Resolve the escape strategy before you draw the planning elevations, or you will be amending them.

Shopfront alterations and advertisement consent

Bank frontages tend to be solid: stone surrounds, small or glazed-over windows, a heavy entrance, and sometimes a surviving original timber shopfront. Councils with a shopfront design guide treat the removal of original fabric as harm.

Separate the two consents. Physical alterations to the shopfront are planning permission, and listed building consent as well where the building is listed. Signage is advertisement consent under the advertisement regulations, which is a different application with its own fee, and some signs benefit from deemed consent while signs with their own lighting usually do not.

The points that generate refusals are internally lit box signs on historic frontages, removal of stall risers and pilasters, full-height frameless glazing replacing a traditional subdivided shopfront, and external roller shutters. Perforated internal shutters behind the glass line are the usual compromise.

Noise, hours and residential neighbours

The second commonest condition after extraction is hours. For a restaurant in a town centre with flats above, expect a proposed closing time to be tested against the amenity of those residents, and expect the authority to consider the cumulative position where several late premises already operate nearby.

Three noise sources get assessed. Plant, as above. Patron noise, meaning arrivals, departures and any external seating. And deliveries and waste collections, which is where early-morning disturbance arises. Offer a condition on delivery hours and a waste storage location rather than waiting to be asked.

Licensing is a separate regime with separate tests and a separate hearing, administered under the Licensing Act 2003. A premises licence does not authorise a planning breach and planning permission does not authorise unlicensed activity, and the two decisions can land differently on hours.

Servicing a town centre unit

A restaurant generates more servicing movements than a bank did: food deliveries, drink deliveries, trade waste collections, cooking oil collection and grease trap servicing. Where the parade has a rear yard, show the vehicle type and the manoeuvring. Where it does not, show where on the highway a vehicle will stop, what the parking restrictions are at the relevant times, and how the goods reach the door.

A short Transport Statement is proportionate for a single unit change of use. A full assessment is not, unless the authority's validation list says otherwise or the unit is large.

Waste is the detail that trips applications up. Trade waste from a restaurant is bulkier than from a bank, with separate streams for dry recyclables, glass and food waste, and food waste needs a sealed, washable store. Count the bins, dimension the store, and show the pull route to the collection point.

Heritage considerations where the building is listed

Many former banks are listed, and the listing covers the interior. Banking halls with decorative plaster ceilings, timber panelling, counters, mosaic floors and the vault doors themselves are frequently the reason for the listing.

Where that applies, the consent you need is listed building consent alongside planning permission, and the test is the statutory duty to have special regard to the desirability of preserving the building and its features of special architectural or historic interest. The supporting document is a Heritage Statement explaining the significance of the building and the effect of each intervention, prepared in line with Historic England's advice on statements of heritage significance.

The interventions that attract most scrutiny are suspended ceilings below a decorative ceiling, partitioning a single-volume banking hall, removing counters and screens, and routing services through historic fabric. A design that keeps the banking hall as a single volume, puts the kitchen in the former back-office area and treats the vault as a feature usually reads better than one that subdivides.

Where you are weighing up which documents the application needs, the full report index lists the relevant types, and related conversions include indoor golf and simulator venues in vacant retail and cash and carry to trade counter and the retail tests.

This is general guidance, not legal advice; check the position with your local planning authority or a qualified professional before relying on it. PlanScope provides AI-assisted draft reports for planning applications. Reports should be reviewed before submission. We do not guarantee planning approval.