Homes, a café and gallery and an art and book shop could be built at the former St Mary’s School site in Gundry Lane, Bridport.

The mixed use application has been opened for public comment by Dorset Council this week.

It comes from Centaur Gallery (Fine Art) Ltd and includes a three-bed home, a single bed flat or maisonette and a single bedsit – giving an additional home above what is already on the site.

Proposals are also laid out for a garden courtyard, car parking spaces and a bin and bike store and reconfigured commercial units within the building.

The site is within the Bridport Conservation Area with the changes expected to be made largely by making internal alterations to the grade 2 listed building.

The school was built in 1876 as a single storey U shaped building of hammer dressed stone, probably from the local Bothenhampton quarry, with a pitched tiled roof and coped gables at an estimated cost of £2000. This is believed to have been a gift from the Bridport Town charity Commissioners to provide a school and a school master for the poor children of Bridport, following sale of the Bull Inn (1859) which had previously been used for this purpose.

The site was still in use as a school until approximately 1980 for around 360 children.

The school was closed when a new premises was built on the outskirts of the town and the property was then sold into private hands and split into separate units, during which time internal changes were made. Currently three of the units are vacant.

Said a statement with the application: “The proposal will have a beneficial effect on the immediate and wider areas of Bridport. It will bring an important local building back into use, and in the process of repair and maintenance prevent urban decay. It will also bring new life along Gundry Lane and provide it with the replacement of tarmacked areas with soft landscaping and a visual green area where there is currently none.”

Public comments on the application, 2023/01148 remain open until May 6th.