COMING soon: a town centre flat in a Victorian town hall with its own balcony for making proclamations.

The top of the Wantage's 1877 town hall is set to be converted into four apartments and one lucky resident will get the original balcony overlooking the market square.

Pension trust DA Phillips & Co, which owns the historic building, won planning permission for the conversion over the summer after HSBC bank which had occupied the building for several decades, left in June 2016.

Although the building is in the Wantage Town Centre Conservation Area, it is not listed, freeing the company up to make alterations.

However, because the bank's lease actually runs until March 2018, the conversion won't begin until then.

It is expected that the ground floor will become a shop.