Historic England's York office at 37 Tanner Row will become a 38-room sister hotel to The Grand. The council approved it on 2 July; the lease ends in August 2027.

Historic England will move out of its York office at 37 Tanner Row, and the building will go back to the use it was built for: a hotel.

City of York Council granted planning permission and listed building consent on 2 July 2026 to turn the Grade II listed offices into a 38-room hotel. The applicant is Splendid Hotels Limited, which runs The Grand Hotel and Spa directly across the road. The new hotel would be a sister to The Grand and share its services.

Historic England has said its lease runs until August 2027, and that it is keeping staff at the office informed and supporting them ahead of the closure. That statement was carried by the BBC this week. It has not said where the York team will go.

What was approved

The two applications are 26/00632/FUL for the change of use and 26/00633/LBC for the works to the listed building. Both were validated on 7 April and approved on 2 July. The permission expires on 2 July 2029 if work has not started by then.

According to the applicant’s planning statement, the hotel would have:

  • 12 bedrooms
  • 26 one, two and three-bedroom suites with kitchenettes, aimed at families and longer stays
  • guests using the facilities at The Grand, on Station Rise
  • a design aimed at the same five-star rating as The Grand

The council’s officer report says no kitchen is proposed in the building itself. The courtyard will provide an accessible parking space.

Built as a hotel in the 1850s

The officer report sets out the building’s history. No 37 was purpose built as a hotel in 1852 to 1855, placed to catch passengers from the new railway station. It was sold in 1899 for use as offices by the North Eastern Railway, and has been offices ever since.

The council’s conservation officers found some harm to the listed building. It comes from:

  • subdividing the central corridors
  • ceiling “rafts” in those corridors
  • new service risers
  • bathroom “pods” inside historic rooms
  • a number of new doorways

They also listed benefits:

  • restoring the front basement area and its blocked basement windows
  • putting partitions back on their historic lines
  • stripping out redundant and intrusive services

The report judged the harm “less than substantial” and outweighed by the public benefits, including returning the building to its original use. The York Conservation Areas Advisory Panel wrote in support. No neighbours objected.

Timeline of 37 Tanner Row, York: built as a hotel 1852 to 1855; North Eastern Railway offices from 1899; hotel application received 2 April 2026; approved 2 July 2026; Historic England lease ends August 2027; permission expires 2 July 2029 if not started.
From hotel to offices and back. Graphic by The York Times
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Why Historic England is going

The applicant’s statement says the offices are “heavily underutilised”. It says staffing in the building has fallen to 20 to 30 people a day over the last five years, because of home working and consolidation of the team. It describes the space as “over double the operational requirement” of Historic England.

The same statement says Historic England is looking for smaller premises nearby, sized for a team of 30 to 40 staff. That is the applicant’s account, not Historic England’s. Historic England itself has not named a new office.

Roman remains under Tanner Row

The site sits in York’s Area of Archaeological Importance. The officer report records that Roman walls standing at least 1m high, with painted plaster, and intact tessellated floors have been found under the road. When a lift was fitted inside No 37 in 1999, a probable Roman road surface turned up just 300mm below the cellar floor.

So the permission requires archaeological monitoring. No digging in the basement or the outbuilding’s ground floor can start until a written scheme of investigation is approved.

What it means for you

  • If you live on Tanner Row or behind it on Micklegate: the council’s decision notice asks for building work to be kept to 8am to 6pm on weekdays and 9am to 1pm on Saturdays, with none on Sundays or bank holidays. Plant noise is controlled by a condition, and details of refuse storage and cycle parking must be approved before the hotel opens.
  • If you visit Historic England in York: nothing changes yet. The lease runs to August 2027.
  • If you want to see the plans: every drawing and report is public on the council’s planning portal. Future applications to discharge the conditions will appear there too.

For other decisions in the city, see our York planning news.