PART of a closed Weymouth art gallery building could be converted into a flat.

The owner of The Harbour Gallery at 16 The Esplanade is asking Dorset Council for planning consent to make the change to part of the lower ground floor.

If agreed, the alterations to the grade 2 listed building will only be internal with no alterations to the outside of the structure – the new flat being accessed by an existing door on Custom House Quay.

Agents acting for Oxfordshire-based owner Mr David King say the works will include creating two bedrooms, a kitchen, shower room, the introduction of partitioning and redecoration which, the agents say “will have a positive impact on the character of the property, historic setting and Conservation Area street scene.”

Other changes to the building, approved in recent years, include another section being converted to a flat and part of the lower ground floor, previously used as a coffee shop, into a home.

The end of row building, thought to have been built between 1850 and 1900, was once used as a hotel and a pub with consent to change the use to an art gallery granted by the former Weymouth and Portland Borough Council in 2018.

Public comments on the application remain open until September 7.