Developer plans to break the law to save part of Wales’ heritage

Martin Shipton

The owner of one of Wales’ most iconic buildings says he is likely to find himself having to commit a criminal offence in order to save it.

Ashley Govier’s company Eden Grove Developments, of which he is the sole director, bought the freehold of the Coal Exchange in Cardiff Bay – built at a time when the city was the coal-exporting capital of the world – in February 2023.

While the main part of the Grade II* listed building has been a hotel for several years, the fabric of its north side has deteriorated to a point where it is partly derelict and in a perilous condition. In 2024 it was put on the Victorian Society’s list of the Top Ten Buildings in Danger in England and Wales for the second time.

Conservation groups including the Cardiff Civic Society have been critical of regulatory bodies, saying they have not done enough to ensure its survival.

Now Mr Govier is working on a plan he believes would secure the Coal Exchange’s future. But for the plan to succeed, he says he will probably have to break the law.

Serious challenges

He told Nation.Cymru: “There have been a number of serious challenges, including the ownership of the site. While we are the freeholder, there are a number of leases in the building, with investors from all over the world owning individual hotel rooms.” The company that previously ran the hotel wasn’t, as Nation. Cymru has reported, passing over the revenue to such owners, leading to protracted disputes.

But the building’s structural defects have also created major problems.

Mr Govier said: “It’s well known that when we came in, there were prohibition notices on site. There were areas of the site that were of significant risk. We took control of the building from the previous leaseholder at the end of 2023, lifted up the rocks and discovered the scale of the physical issues with the building.

“We remained during the first three months of 2024 – of course there was a lot of upset for people who had booked rooms, and we completely sympathise with that. But our priority at the time was to ensure that the building was safe to operate, dealing with the fire notice prohibition in particular.

“We reopened the hotel in March with a new arrangement so the bedroom investors got a return on their investment, bringing the rooms back to life.

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“We then had to focus on the north side. We were aware of a partial collapse in 2023 and the risk of a further collapse. We had to deal with other investors who didn’t have leases but an interest in individual rooms.. By the end of 2024 we were in control of the north side of the building. It took longer than we would like, but we had to be patient with the Land Registry processes.

“It’s still my view, and our engineer’s view, that there’s a risk to life from the north side that could collapse. Our job now is to deal with that north side and put it into a safe state.

“We need to preserve as much of it as we can – not that there’s much there now to preserve, because it’s collapsing. We’ve got specialist surveyors on board. But behind the facade there’s nothing, floor to ceiling. The floors have gone – there’s no roof and you can see the sky. The internal walls have gone. There’s nothing there other than the facade which is holding it.

“Our view is that we want to retain that facade for its history and the importance of the building. But we need to put structure behind that facade and it has to be new. It’s not that we’re taking anything away – there is nothing there.”

New apartments

Mr Govier said the plan was to take the building up by four or five storeys so it had some visibility in the city – at present it’s tucked away on a square and can’t be seen from the nearby main road. Revenue from between 60 and 70 new apartments would provide funding to preserve the building for the next 100 years – by which time it will be someone else’s problem.

Getting the building safe will, however, entail committing a criminal offence by demolishing part of a listed building without planning permission.

Mr Govier said: “Getting planning permission takes too long in these circumstances – probably a couple of years. As I’ve said, it’s not that we’re behaving like cowboys and bringing in Bob the Builder to knock down a building that should remain in order to replace it with something more profitable.

“I’m waiting for the reports from the surveyors and our solicitors. I believe we’ll be able to justify what we’re doing with the aim of saving as much of the building as we can. We’ll then apply for retrospective planning permission.”

Mr Govier said he would apply for public funding towards the cost of the project, but in view of the state of the public finances didn’t expect that to be successful. A private investor – Derek Watts, of the Cambridge-based developer Albendan – would fund the work.