Ornate Grade II* Landmark on Maidstone's Bank Street Could Become Six Flats

A Grade II* listed building on Maidstone's Bank Street, one of the most heavily decorated frontages in the town centre, would be turned from offices into six self-contained flats under an application now with the borough council.

No. 78 Bank Street is among Maidstone's more recognisable buildings: its upper floors carry ornate pargetting - moulded and modelled plasterwork - with a royal coat of arms and raised floral panels above the shopfront. Historic England lists it at Grade II*, the category reserved for "particularly important buildings of more than special interest", which covers only a small fraction of listed buildings nationally. It has been on the national list since 1951.

The application (reference 26/503328/FULL), validated on 28 August 2026, seeks a change of use from office to residential and internal alterations to create six flats, along with changes to some windows. It is paired with an application for listed building consent (26/503329/LBC) covering the internal works - new bathrooms and partitions, new electrical and heating systems, acoustic insulation between floors, and refurbishment of a rear outbuilding - needed to make the conversion possible. Both are awaiting a decision. The plans were drawn up by Forma Architecture Ltd, with a heritage assessment by a specialist listed-building practice.

The building changed hands relatively recently. It was offered at a property auction in September 2024 and sold for £165,000 - a modest figure for a town-centre building of its size and status, and the kind of price that usually reflects a property in need of significant work or one that has struggled to hold a commercial tenant.

Office-to-residential conversions have become common across town centres as demand for older, upper-floor office space has fallen away, and Maidstone is no exception. Doing it here is more constrained than most: alterations to a Grade II* building are tightly controlled, and the council will weigh the six flats against any harm to a frontage that is a large part of what gives this stretch of Bank Street its character. What the application signals, regardless of the outcome, is that another long-standing town-centre office address is being given up. Source: Maidstone Borough Council