Offices above a Wokingham town centre shop will become flats after planning permission was granted.
The former home of clothes retailer New Look in Market Place will see a one-bed and a four-bed flat created.
The Grade II listed building will also house offices for law firm Blandy & Blandy this autumn.
The site has three car parking spaces, but one of these will be a covered cycle store that can hold three bikes.
Architects Heritage Fusion says the building is an early 17th century, timber framed town house.
Although most of the buildings on Market Place were re-clad in the Georgian period, in this case the timber framing is exposed inside.
No demolition or works to the outside of the building are planned, and the application says work inside will be “carried out sensitively”.
Wokingham Borough Council officers granted permission – but said the historic timbers “must not be altered in any physical way”. That means they can’t be cleaned with abrasive materials, stripped of varnish, stained or painted.
Officers also say that the flats cannot be occupied unless the developers provide the covered cycle parking spaces promised in the plans.
