{"id":5360,"date":"2025-05-27T07:35:47","date_gmt":"2025-05-27T07:35:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/?p=5360"},"modified":"2025-05-27T07:35:47","modified_gmt":"2025-05-27T07:35:47","slug":"heritage-and-planning-may-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/2025\/05\/27\/heritage-and-planning-may-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"Heritage and planning – May 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Sadly, there is nothing positive to report regarding the Crooked House<\/a>.\u00a0 <\/strong>Readers will recall that the famous \u2018wonky\u2019 pub in Himley burned down in August 2023 and was subsequently demolished.\u00a0 South Staffordshire Council then ordered the owners to rebuild the pub to its original plans within three years.\u00a0 The owners appealed against this and their appeal was scheduled to be heard by a planning inspector in March.\u00a0 The owners however successfully appealed to the High Court to have the proceedings delayed until, it is understood, the associated criminal case is completed.\u00a0 Six people were arrested in connection with the fire.\u00a0 Progress with the criminal case appears to be very slow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The case prompted the then MP for Dudley South, Marco Longhi, to introduce his Heritage Pubs bill in Parliament, seeking to provide better protection for community pubs.  Mr Longhi\u2019s constituency was abolished at the 2024 election but Mike Wood, the MP for Kingswinford and South Staffordshire, is continuing to promote the bill and it was due to have its second reading in Parliament in April.  As seems to be the way with this case, this was postponed and a new date has not yet been set.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 An application to demolish the Anglesea Arms<\/a><\/strong> in Woolwich and replace it with a block of seven flats and a commercial unit has been refused by Greenwich Council.\u00a0 The pub, which dates from 1850, is on the local heritage list and it is also within the Woolwich Conservation Area.\u00a0 It closed in January.\u00a0 The developers said that the commercial unit was intended to be \u2018a space for gathering the local community\u2019 in place of the pub but the Council decided that the loss of the public house was unacceptable.\u00a0 They also questioned the efforts that had been made to keep the pub open.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2022 The Grade II*-listed Mawson Arms\/Fox & Hounds<\/a><\/strong>, once the Fuller\u2019s brewery tap, has also had a planning application rejected.\u00a0 The proposal was to convert the ground floor into two flats.\u00a0 The upper floors have already been converted.\u00a0 Sadly, the decision was not based on the need to retain the site as a pub (which it has been since 1759) but because Hounslow Council decided that the living conditions in the proposed flats did not meet the standard set out in their planning policy.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2022 There is still no definite information as to what is to become of the currently closed Ye Olde Swiss Cottage<\/a><\/strong> but there is some good news in that Camden Council has now listed the pub as an Asset of Community Value.\u00a0 The local press rather exaggerated the effect of this in saying it now has \u2018five years protection from demolition\u2019 but it is useful all the same.\u00a0 If the owners decide to appeal against the listing, we will at least find out who they are and, possibly, what their intentions are.\u00a0 Thanks to the Belsize Society, local residents and Camden Council\u2019s planning team for their hard work on the application.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 Good news as regards the Trafalgar Free House<\/a> <\/strong>in South Wimbledon.\u00a0 A proposal was submitted for the demolition of the existing distinctive building and its replacement by a four-storey block of flats with a replacement bar on the ground floor.\u00a0 Many objectors considered this replacement to be inadequate.\u00a0 Happily, Merton Council agreed, saying that \u2018the harm arising from loss of the public house, and its associated heritage, cultural, economic and social value<\/em>\u2019 went against local planning policy, as well as Policy HC7 (A1 and B) of the London Plan 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Updates from CAMRA\u2019s National Inventory of Historic Pub Interiors:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 The Antelope<\/a> <\/strong>in Tooting (SW17 9NG) has recently been refurbished by Urban Pubs & Bars who acquired the pub from Antic.\u00a0 The refurbishment, reported to have cost \u00a31 million, is impressive but, unfortunately, several inter-war features have been lost.\u00a0 These include the bar counter, a stillion bar-back in the centre of the servery and the mirrored bar-back at the rear of the servery with a \u2018Barclays Beers<\/em>\u2019 illuminated panel. \u00a0The former billiards room at the back is however virtually unchanged, although the panelled walls have been painted magenta.\u00a0 As a consequence, the pub has been downgraded from two stars to one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2022 The Builders Arms<\/a><\/strong> in Teddington has reopened after a two-year closure and has also been refurbished.\u00a0 Happily, the pub, which dates from 1865, still has its historic features so retains its two star rating.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u2022 The Horns Tavern<\/a><\/strong> in West Norwood, a Craft Union (Stonegate) venue, has been removed from CAMRA\u2019s National Inventory because, in the course of a recent refurbishment, all surviving historic features were removed.\u00a0 It had rated one star.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2022\u00a0 The very distinctive Roundhouse<\/a> <\/strong>in Dagenham, once a well known music venue, was built in 1936 for Watney\u2019s Brewery by Alfred W Blomfield.\u00a0 It served the Becontree Estate and originally had a tea room and an indoor bowling green.\u00a0 The pub had previously been rated one star but a recent refurbishment has seen the loss of its remaining historic features and so it has now been removed from the inventory.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Photo Rex Ward<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sadly, there is nothing positive to report regarding the Crooked House.\u00a0 Readers will recall that the famous \u2018wonky\u2019 pub in Himley burned down in August 2023 and was subsequently demolished.\u00a0… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5361,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5360","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pub-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5360","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5360"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5360\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5362,"href":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5360\/revisions\/5362"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5361"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5360"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5360"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5360"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}