The saga of the Crooked House in Himley continues. Readers will recall that, following an unexplained fire and its subsequent unauthorised demolition, South Staffordshire Council ordered the owners to rebuild the pub on its original site. The owners appealed, although not against having to rebuild it as such but about the location where it should be rebuilt. The planning inquiry was set for 11 March but the owners appealed to the High Court to have the inquiry postponed. The precise reasons for the application have not been revealed but a spokesperson for South Staffordshire Council said that the inquiry would not now be held until the potential criminal proceedings into the fire have been concluded.
In February Havering Council approved plans to demolish the Alderman in Harold Hill. The pub was built in 1959 and is in the Swiss chalet style. This has been on the cards since August 2023 as part of the Harold Hill District Centre redevelopment. In the meantime, the pub has continued to trade well. It had been understood that the development plans would include both temporary and long term replacements for the pub and that demolition would not happen until the temporary replacement was in place. Doubt has now been cast on this, with the temporary pub now only being promised ‘if feasible to do so’ and the long term replacement now only being an ‘aim’. One councillor expressed concern for elderly residents who ‘rely on the pub’ because they feel ‘lonely and isolated’. There has been a significant loss of pubs in the area over the last few years. The pub takes its unusual name from a local publican and one time mayor, Alderman Albert John Dyer. He is said to have pioneered the 10.30pm closing time for pubs, all year round.
The imposing Denmark Arms in East Ham closed at the end of January and is up for sale. It was formerly operated by Antic. The pub, which was built in the late 19th Century and was extended in 1903, rates two stars on CAMRA’s register of historic pub interiors. It is Grade II listed. Of particular interest is the impressive former billiard room on the first floor with its glazed skylights. This has more recently been used for Arts & Craft and Vinyl fairs and the like. The pub originally had two bars but was opened out and the bar counter altered in the 1970s but it retained a large amount of original detail. Estate agents AG&G are handling the sale of the freehold with an asking price of £1,250,000. Full details of the interior are available on CAMRA’s website.
It is deeply sad to see a pub on Historic England’s Heritage at Risk list but this is the current status of the Leslie Arms in Croydon. This splendid building, currently surrounded by a hoarding, was built around 1850 in the Arts and Crafts style for the Nalder & Colyer brewery. The Victorian Society, in their January newsletter, report that Heritage England say that the pub is at ‘immediate risk of further rapid deterioration or loss of fabric’. The owner is reported to be a property developer who owns another historic building in Somerset in the same condition. He apparently is happy to agree appropriate courses of action but then does nothing.
The Lord Southampton in Kentish Town was briefly mentioned in the February/March edition. CAMRA’s Pub Heritage Group have now assessed it and this is their verdict: The Lord Southampton reopened in late 2024 after three years closure and has been subject to an excellent restoration to its interwar interior. Over the years the three separate rooms have been amalgamated. The off-sales is now a kitchen. The lobby has a dado of green tiling. The interior walls have fielded panelling to three-quarters height, sections of which has been sensitively replaced and it is not easy to spot the difference! The interwar bar counter has been retained (it has a new top) along with the fine mirrored bar-back. Most impressive is the rear left-hand area, which is approached via an elegant timber archway. The fully panelled space retains intact the glazed hatch to the servery and the lower section can still be raised – very rare. The ceiling has been replaced.
The pub is featured on the cover of this edition. Here are some further photographs of the interior, courtesy of Michael Slaughter LRPS.
The Pub Heritage Group feel that the licensees, Philip & Amy, deserve recognition for the restoration work and have suggested that they enter the pub in CAMRA’s Pub Design Awards in both the ‘Refurbishment’ and ‘Historic England Restoration’ categories.
The Royal Bell in Bromley is a Grade II-listed former hotel built in 1898. It stands on the site of a former coaching inn dating from 1666 and which is mentioned by Jane Austen in Pride and Prejudice. It was built in the Queen Anne style by the Arts & Crafts movement architect Ernest Newton. It is currently on Historic England’s ‘Heritage at Risk’ register, although it is acknowledged that a repair scheme is in progress. It has been a Berni Inn and then a late night venue, closing in 2008. Planning permission was granted in 2019 for its conversion to a hotel but nothing became of those plans. It partly reopened from May to December 2021, closing again because of the pandemic.
The current owners, TRB Property Holdings Limited, have applied for planning permission to install food and drink outlets at ground floor level, a multi-use room at basement level, a function hall and a separate business unit on the first floor and hotel rooms on the second and third floors. They also wish to add an extension to the rear of the ground floor and install a lift to serve the hotel floors. The owners are also seeking to vary the premises licence to extend the hours permitted for the sale of alcohol and to permit late-night refreshments and the playing of recorded music throughout the building.
An application to redevelop the Trafalgar in South Wimbledon has resurfaced. The original plans, dating from June last year, have been substantially revised and Merton Council have accepted them under the existing application. The basic plan, which is for the pub’s demolition and replacement with a four storey building, remains the same. There will be residential units on the upper floors (C3) and a pub unit on the ground floor. Local campaigners, not least CAMRA’s South West London branch (whose Pub of the Year it has been several times) will continue to oppose the application. The new ‘pub’ is seen as unviable, not least because the plans make no provision to replace the manager’s accommodation and the outside area. Most of all, the quaint cottage style building is the last one of any distinction in an area that has been, and is being, highly developed. The locals (who include the editor) like their pub just as it is and want it left alone.
Sad news about the Grade II-listed former White Horse in Epsom. The pub, dating from the 17th century, closed in 2020 and was converted into a cocktail bar. This closed in January 2024. Sainsbury’s Supermarkets Ltd have made an application to Epsom and Ewell District Council for a change of use to a convenience store. This will also involve installing an ATM in the front wall. The application claims that, “Given the wealth of drinking establishments in Epsom, not just in the town centre, it is unlikely that the loss of a facility which has already been closed for a year could be considered a detriment.” It also claims that the development would have a ‘neutral effect’ on the aspects that make it a listed building, even though it will see the removal of the building’s distinctive Victorian sash windows. The application is still open for consultation as we go to print.
Need for clarification
Pubs have the planning status sui generis which means that each is unique in itself. Full planning permission is required to demolish or to change the use of a pub. This is not so with restaurants (class E) where the level of protection is much weaker. CAMRA is concerned that developers are trying to exploit this potential loophole by claiming that pubs are restaurants. The campaign has written to Angela Rayner, in her capacity as the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, saying that ‘a simple way that English planning laws could be changed to help with the fight against developers and global brewers – who have little interest in keeping pubs open for community benefit – would be to define a pub in planning law. Doing so would give a local authority the power to reject ‘change of use’ applications and help campaigners trying to save their pub being closed’. A ministry spokesperson has previously acknowledged that ‘Pubs play a vital role in our communities, acting often as the beating heart of an area’.