A HISTORIC York building which was once overnight accommodation for judges is to become a 15-bedroom hotel.

Plans for convert the Grade II-listed Judges' Court, off Coney Street, have been approved by City of York Council officials. The building's last use was as offices for law firm Sykes Lee & Brydson, which merged with Peasholme Green-based Ware & Kay last year.

Judges' Court was built in the early 18th Century and was used as accommodation by visiting judges presiding over the Courts of Assizes at York Castle, having originally been designed as a townhouse. It later became Crow's Coffee House and the Yorkshire Mechanical Museum.

David Chapman Associates, the scheme's planning consultants, said the hotel use would "regenerate" and maintain the building, with no restaurant or bar being included in the plans and its entrance being gated.

In a report, council planners said there would be "some harm to the significance of the building", but this would be outweighed by the benefits of bringing it back into use.