A consortium of Victoria locals plans to save a heritage asset from demolition by converting the building into flats.
Six residents intend to embark on a restoration project – which they estimate will cost £2.5m – on the 149-year-old building on Penshurst Road, once the Penshurst Arms pub.
However, the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) have urged the council to reject the proposals.
Local Pubs Preservation Officer James Watson wrote: “It would remove an important neighbourhood facility which although currently closed, retains the potential to be reopened and brought back into community use.
“The E9 area has suffered substantial losses in the number of pubs over the last thirty years. Figures from East London CAMRA show that 53% of the pubs in E9 have changed use since 1983. This is over twice the UK average.
“We would urge the Council to refuse consent to the present application and to encourage the applicants to fully explore the retention of the pub function on the ground floor. We would offer our services to work with the applicant to bring about such a proposal.”
Hugo Warner, a member of the locals’ consortium, responded by arguing that converting the building into a pub is not economically viable.
“The cost of doing up the ground floor to the standards required for a pub would be too high.
“I’m a bit annoyed by CAMRA’s blanket ‘developer’ accusation. We all live locally. I’ve lived in Hackney for 25 years and work in the catering business, so if it was possible to turn it back into a pub we would.
“Ninety-nine per cent of residents seem happy with what we’re doing. The only negative comments we’ve had relate to a distaste towards our plans for a contemporary design.”
Nick Perry, of the Central and South Hackney Conservation Area Advisory Committee, was sympathetic to the group’s cause.
“They aren’t ‘developers’ in the conventional sense and have been associated with the area and property for some years.
“We do recognise it hasn’t been a full-time pub for many years and the locals evidently don’t miss it.
While it is not yet know when the final decision will be made, the consortium is meeting Hackney council in November to further discuss the application.
We hear arguments about pubs being “not economically viable” all the time. When the Crown & Shuttle closed on Shoreditch High Street they said it was not viable. Now with new management, decent local beer and simple food it is thriving. In fact one can hardly squeeze in the place. The truth is that there is no such thing as an unviable pub – only unviable management. For the applicants to convince the Council that the pub is not viable and there is no demand for such a community facility in that area, they would need to have marketed the pub for at least 12 months at a fair and reasonable price, agreed by the Council, as a public house building. CAMRA understand this was marketed as a residential development opportunity by an estate agent – Sovereign, with no expertise in the leisure arena.
This case has exposed the weaknesses in the planning system. The pub ceased trading full-time a number of years ago and yet no permission was sought at that time for a residential use of the land. Since the Council failed to enforce against this at that time, the owners have effectively achieved residential conversion through the back door and the sole use of the land for residential becomes a fait accompli. This technique is used by developers up and down the country to deprive communities of their social amenities for personal profit. This is one of the many planning loopholes that CAMRA is campaigning hard to close.
We have nothing against new housing development. Our role is to stand up for the rights of responsible drinkers and promote the culture of pub use and pub-going. The country risks losing its world-famous heritage in this area if we let our historic pub buildings be demolished or change use.
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