DEMOLISHING a historic building which once housed a huge dolls' house collection belonging to author Graham Greene's wife would be "very concerning", neighbours have said.

The Rotunda in Iffley Turn, Iffley, is part of a collection of properties known collective as Grove House which were once home to the mother and sister of Cardinal John Henry Newman and were visited by Lewis Carroll in 1862.

Its current owner, Rosie Penna, bought the properties in 2014 and has applied to Oxford City Council to demolish the Rotunda and replace it with a new building where she could live, while her daughter and son-in-law stay in the main Grade II-listed Grove House next door.

But the proposals for the building, which also hosted concerts by acts including Young Knives and former Supergrass frontman Gaz Coombes, have been criticised by some people living nearby.

Lucien Senna, an author and poet who lives in Iffley Turn, said: "This house is of enormous historical importance.

"It is an amazing-looking building and there have been a lot of historic people who have lived there.

"Demolition would mean it would be gone forever.

"I am very concerned about it."

The main house was built between 1780 and 1823 and the Rotunda was added in the 1960s by Vivien Greene, the estranged wife of the author of Brighton Rock, The Power and the Glory and The Third Man.

Mrs Greene, who died in 2003 at the age of 98, began collecting dolls' houses in 1942 and opened her collection in the Rotunda in 1962 when she had 19.

The oldest was a Queen Anne house dating from 1702 and the most expensive cost £150, about £3,000 in today's money.

By the mid-1990s the Rotunda housed 41 dolls' houses but they were sold at auction in London in 1998 as Mrs Greene wanted other people to appreciate them.

In a planning document submitted by architecture Berman Guedes Stretton (BGS), Ms Penna said she wanted to demolish the Rotunda and build a new home on its site because it was unsuitable for living in.

She said: "I am a pensioner and a widow and my health is problematic so I need to be near my only child resident in this country.

"I am keen to have a warm and sustainable home to see me through the rest of my life with accommodation for a carer, should I need one.

"Because it proved unviable to upgrade the existing Rotunda I would wish to replace it with [a] high performing home designed with sensitivity to the main house."

A consultation on the plans will close on February 10 and city councillors must approve or rejected the demolition by February 29.

Deborah Burrows, who lives in nearby Church Way, said in a response to the application: "The proposed dwelling is stridently modern and entirely out of keeping with the current residence.

"The significance of the Rotunda is that it was designed to complement the listed building to which it was attached.

"It is of a highly attractive design that uses elements of the Regency villa and complements the listing building status.

"This proposal fails to respond to the local distinctiveness of the Regency villa or respond appropriately to the setting of the listed building and the landscape gardens in a way in which the Rotunda currently does."

In the submission to the city council BGS said: "BGS' experience refurbishing Grove House in 2005 demonstrates we have a special understanding and appreciation for the distinctive historical character of the property.

"We hope to demonstrated that a new property has the potential of being a fantastic home that does not impact on the setting of the listed building and that provides an architectural asset for the Iffley area."