City pub of 1730s can be turned into a shop

A PUB dating back to the 1730s is to be converted into a shop in a move it is claimed will diminish the heritage of the area.

But Bradford Council heard that plans for the King’s Arms in the city’s Great Horton Road will at least stop it from “declining into dilapidation”.

The council approved a planning application to change the use of the pub to a shop with two flats above.

The pub is one of the oldest in the district. The application to convert it was submitted by developers, who says the pub is currently vacant “having struggled to pay its way for some time”.

The smoking ban was one reason given for the decline in trade at the pub, which once acted as a stopping point on the journey from Bradford to Halifax. The building, which is Grade II listed and in the Great Horton conservation area, dates back to 1739.

Paul Jennings, the author of The Local: A History of the English Pub, tells of the long ascent towards Scarlet Heights and the village that later came to be called Queensbury.

He writes: “In its early days it was an important staging post for travellers and their horses on their way from Bradford to Halifax.”

Over the years, magistrates’ petty sessions and coroners’ inquests were held there.

Conservation official Jon Ackroyd said: “The loss of a historic public house will diminish heritage significance in the conservation area. It is likely the use has continued since the 1700s.”

But he said the new plans may sustain a building “which might otherwise decline into dilapidation”.