Council officers want to approve a sauna, café, hot yoga studio and four holiday rooms at Yoyo Yard in Brighton’s North Laine, even though their own report says the plan conflicts with the city’s housing policy because it would take away about 155 square metres of homes. Brighton and Hove City Council’s Planning Committee is due to decide on Wednesday 28 October, and the officer report recommends permission with 12 conditions.
Application. BH2026/00727, full planning permission. Valid from 25 March 2026.
Where. Yoyo Yard, 36 and 37 Cheltenham Place, Brighton BN1 4AB. West Hill and North Laine ward, in the North Laine Conservation Area.
Applicant. Yoyo Yard, with Lewis and Co Planning as agent.
What. A change of use from mixed use (artists’ studios, sauna and associated facilities) to a single mixed use covering artists’ studios, sauna, café, yoga studio, letting rooms and associated facilities. It also includes restoring the historic sliding doors at the front and creating disabled access.
Decision. Planning Committee, Council Chamber, Hove Town Hall, Wednesday 28 October 2026, 1pm. The officer recommendation is to grant.
What Yoyo Yard wants to add
The site is a back-land urban sauna with artists’ studios around the yard, entered through gates on the east side of Cheltenham Place. A 2025 consent, BH2025/01271, approved the move from industrial use to a mix of artists’ studios and a sauna.
The new application asks for the whole site to be treated as one mixed use. According to the report, that would allow four of the nine ground floor studios to be converted into a hot yoga studio, new changing rooms, a hammam and a steam room, leaving five studios for artists. A second, smaller sauna would go in the yard, and a small café would be created. The report says the café has no conventional street frontage, so officers expect it to serve people already on site rather than passing trade.
The sliding timber doors at the front of the site would be reinstated. The report says the existing gate does not reach the full height of the opening, and that the new doors are claimed to be as original.
The housing conflict
The part of the report most likely to shape the debate is its finding on homes. It says the first floor and part of the ground floor, about 155 square metres reached from a separate door at 37 Cheltenham Place, is probably in lawful residential use, on the balance of probabilities. Officers say there is no lawful use certificate and that the planning history is ambiguous.
Under Policy DM2 of City Plan Part Two, the council resists any net loss of homes unless an exception applies. The report says none of the exceptions clearly applies: the scheme would not provide affordable housing, would not meet an identified community need and is not needed to protect the building. It concludes that turning the flats into holiday rooms “is in conflict with policy DM2”.
Officers nevertheless recommend approval. Their reasoning is that the five existing units are small, cramped and contrived in layout, and fail both the housing quality policy (DM1) and the national space standards as they stand. The report records council tax entries and HMO licences showing 37 Cheltenham Place was used as a small house in multiple occupation until about August 2020, with no planning permission on record for that use. It says the floor space could not easily be made into workable homes without a wholesale redevelopment that is not proposed. The loss of the flats is therefore judged acceptable “on balance”.
The report also accepts an objector’s warning that allowing the change because of an unlawful subdivision could set a precedent at a time when the council cannot meet its housing supply figures.
The holiday lets
The four first floor rooms are already being let. The report says the applicant states holiday letting has run from the site since 2025, with no planning history for it. It adds that the rooms can be booked through the Yoyo website and also through conventional sites such as Booking.com and Airbnb, which officers say suggests “some degree of independence” from the sauna. Officers add that the rooms are mostly reached separately from the sauna area, and that they are not “functionally dependent” on the wellness business.
Objectors said the rooms can sleep 14 people when booked together. The report says there are four units and that booking information suggests 13 bed spaces across the site.
The applicant’s management information says guests would be registered before arrival, met by a manager and briefed on site rules, that stag and hen events would not be allowed, and that the rooms would also host people on small residential courses such as sauna training and breathwork. Officers call that a general overview and say it does not contain enough detail on noise safeguards. They say the setting makes party use less likely, but add that this is “in no way guaranteed”.
Officers point out that the bedroom and stair windows face Cheltenham Place, that there is no outdoor space for the rooms, and that some late-night noise is to be expected in a city centre location. They conclude the harm would not warrant refusal.
The conditions
If councillors follow the recommendation, the report proposes conditions including:
The holiday rooms may only be used as short-term accommodation linked to the sauna and wellness use, never as independent holiday lets or self-contained flats. Before the new use starts, an operation and management plan must be approved, with a 24-hour emergency contact for neighbours, house rules on noise, waste arrangements for overnight guests, advice on sustainable travel, and an open record of bookings that the council can inspect at any time.
The sauna, studios and café may only operate between 7am and 9pm. The sauna may be heated only by electricity, because the site is in an Air Quality Management Area. The studios must stay in employment use and the sauna, yoga studio, steam room and hammam in indoor recreation use only. Details of cycle parking, refuse storage and waste water drainage must also be approved, and the new timber doors must be installed before the new use begins.
Objections and support
The report records 32 objections and 24 comments in support. Objectors raise the loss of housing in a housing crisis, the spread of short-term lets in the North Laine, noise and disturbance, anti-social behaviour, waste, the retrospective nature of the application, and the risk to the artists’ studios. Several say the neighbouring properties at Nos. 34 to 38 are under the same freehold and some are already operating as large Airbnbs, and one says there is no onsite management after 8pm.
The North Laine Community Association objects. According to the report, it cites a proliferation of short-term lets in the North Laine, parts of the building already in holiday let use, and the need to establish the lawful use of the accommodation before any change of use is decided. It also raises building regulations and fire safety queries, and welcomes the work to the access gates.
Supporters point to improved facilities, genuinely inclusive access, the benefits to residents, visitors and the arts scene, and the improvement to the gates.
What council teams say
The council’s heritage team raises no objection and finds no harm to the conservation area, saying the renovated gates would improve the public realm. The sustainable transport team also has no objection, noting the site is in a controlled parking zone, near major bus routes and nine minutes’ walk from Brighton station, and asks for a cycle parking condition. Culture and creative industries, economic development, planning policy and private sector housing made no comment.
What happens next
The Planning Committee meets at 1pm on Wednesday 28 October at Hove Town Hall, with this application listed as item 72B on the meeting agenda. The same meeting is due to consider council flats at Oakley House; see our report, Council Plans 20 Affordable Flats at Oakley House, Brighton. You can look up this application on the council’s planning register under reference BH2026/00727.
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