Another pub building up for demolition – this time in Charlton
After the threat to the Lord Hood pub in Greenwich (Planning meeting tonight – 8th March) comes news of another building under threat. This time it’s the closed former Victoria pub in lower Charlton.
The proposals are for “demolition of former public house and construction of a three storey student accommodation building comprising of three six-bed flats”. To find details on Greenwich Council’s planning site, click here and search using reference 16/0198/F
Clearly the building is not in good shape right now with the owners taking no care. Assuming it doesn’t collapse through neglect, it’s not hard to envisage this as a thriving venue once again when thousands of homes are built in this area, which are planned in the near future.
It joins a whole plethora of pub demolitions planned along this road in Woolwich and lower Charlton.
Firstly, some good news though. The White Horse pub was threatened with a breath-takingly bad proposal:
That nonsense wasn’t actually a joke. Fortunately the council refused planning permission and a subsequent appeal was dismissed in September 2015. Hopefully this offers a precursor to tonight’s decision for the Lord Hood in Greenwich.
As I wrote about recently, the attractive former Clancy’s pub is also under threat.
Also under threat is the post-war Albion pub. This has much less architectural merit than the others:
As mentioned before, this area is projected for thousands of homes in coming years through the ‘Charlton Riverside Masterplan‘, which is now being revised, and so it makes sense to retain the few attractive commercial buildings in order to provide much needed local hubs in future.
And even if there’s little demand for these buildings as pubs, they could still offer a great asset if utilised as shops, coffee shops or restaurants amongst wholesale redevelopment occurring all around.
Once again, to comment on plans for the Victoria Pub, click here and search using reference 16/0198/F
I’m surprised the Albion hasn’t been snapped up by one of the supermarket chains for a ‘local’ shop. Being one of the ugliest buildings in the area, it has no architectural merit at all. The White Horse, Clancy’s and the Hood are a different proposition, as they are decent Victorian structures. They could all, in time, be relaunched along the lines of the now-successful White Swan. Allowing housing to be built on any of this sites is not a good plan if you want real communities.
A tower has now been approved on the Albion site. Commercial space at street level.
You can link directly to a planning app on idox systems like Greenwich if you click Summary after opening up the app, then copying the URL.
I love the former Victoria building.
I can’t make the search work using the reference you gave though. Is there a key word or another way? I’ve tried a few things
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It seems that The Victoria is going to stay a bit longer! :–)
https://planning.royalgreenwich.gov.uk/online-applications/files/9376FBFBA427C4945F44C8264956B790/pdf/16_0198_F-Decision_Notice-379999.pdf