Plans to keep part of a Tenby property said to have inspired Middlemarch author George Eliot as a holiday let have been approved.

Pavel Stepanek of Ty Gwynne Ltd, through agent Hayston Developments & Planning Ltd, applied to the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority for a certificate confirming that Gwynne House’s ground and upper floors on Bridge Street which overlooks Tenby harbour, are lawfully used as a holiday let.

The Grade II-listed property is one of a pair of early 19th-century houses overlooking the town’s harbour in the conservation area.

Gwynne House features a shared heritage plaque with next door commemorating the author ‘George Eliot,’ actually writer Mary Ann Evans, who it is said, while lodged at the property, was inspired to write her first novel.

George Eliot’s most famous and acclaimed work is the 1871–1872 novel Middlemarch.

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.

A supporting statement said the Park approved the property’s retention as a mixed-use building in 2014, with residential accommodation in the basement and guesthouse accommodation on the ground and upper floors.

Mr Stepanek bought the property in July 2021. A witness statement said Gwynne House was already operating as a holiday let, despite permission covering only guesthouse use, and that he honoured existing bookings, “demonstrating that the holiday letting use had commenced prior to his acquisition of the property”.

The application was backed by historic booking records, property-management documents, evidence of bookings in place when Mr Stepanek bought it and customer reviews describing Gwynne House as a single-property holiday let in 2020.

The lawfulness call was backed by Park planners, an officer report saying it was considered that since the basement flat was let out separately, the flat is a separate dwelling from the short term holiday let.

“As such, it is deemed that the building is now used as two separate dwellings and is made up of two planning units which have no reliance upon each other, no shared facilities or shared access.

“Accordingly, it is considered that the change of use of B&B to short term holiday let is a change of use to a single dwelling. The four-year rule therefore applies, and the information/evidence submitted by the applicant is sufficient to show that the [holiday let] use has been in existence for a period in excess of four years.”

After acquisition, the property underwent required refurbishment from late 2021 to early 2022 before resuming operation as a self-contained short-term holiday let, while the basement residential use continued under the 2014 consent.

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