LEADING author Polly Samson and her rockstar husband David Gilmour plan to demolish a former Hove bath house to make way for a new luxury home.

The couple hope to build a house for their extended family of eight children on the site of Medina House yards from their current home.

Mrs Samson is said to have fallen in love with the property after moving to the city in 2009 and became “appalled” as it fell into its current derelict state.

She had hoped to restore the 122-year-old building but surveys have revealed it is beyond salvaging.

One thousand residents have been invited to a public exhibition later this month where designs for the new “ghost” building - designed to retain features of the original building - will be on display.

A protest poster referencing Pink Floyd’s Another Brick in the Wall has been pinned to barrier walls around Medina House by a group or individual calling themselves Save Hove From Property Tycoons.

Mrs Samson bought the property in October for a seven-figure fee from developer Sirus Taghan who had owned it for 16 years.

Mr Taghan had been unsuccessful with a total of 20 planning applications for the site which included proposals for a 16-storey tower for 11 flats.

A Brighton and Hove City Council planning brief drawn up three years ago called for a residential scheme to retain Medina House as its core feature.

It is hoped that a planning application could be submitted within weeks with a decision reached by the end of the year to allow work to begin in the early spring.

The couple will be hoping for better luck in their latest project than they enjoyed in building an underground studio at the rear of their Medina Terrace home.

In May 2012, an unexploded Second World War bomb was discovered during works while the project also came under fire for moving a memorial cross for 19th century soldier Wilford Cole Verner.

But the expansion of their grade II-listed Hove home has been praised by local architects and conservationists.

Keb Garavito-Bruhn, partner at London-based Pilbrow & Partners, said: “Our client Polly Samson fell in love with Medina House.

“She and David Gilmour have lived nearby for number of years and were appalled by the way that the building has been treated.

“Her ambition was to keep it and convert it into a family home and we have been working on plans with them for over a year.”

Mr Garavito-Bruhn said Medina House had deteriorated beyond “economic repair” because of “misfortune, neglect, fire”, subsidence and damage to the structural frame as well as “damaging alterations and demolitions” by previous owners.

He added: “Our plans are to rebuild Medina House, keeping the form of the original and incorporating heritage features, like glazed tiles from the old bath house.

“A private home for Polly and her family, our design adapts the form and fabric of the original to its new use with contemporary sustainable construction.

“We have been talking to neighbours and the council about these ideas and now look forward to presenting them to the community.”