Part of historic pub to be converted to secure its future
A HISTORIC town centre pub will be part-converted into a flat in order to secure its long-term future.
The Hope and Anchor, a Grade II listed building located on Station Road in Wokingham, will be split into two units.
One will remain as a public house and the other as a self-contained four-bedroom flat.
The planning application states the overall costs of running the premises are increasing to a point where both the landlord and the brewery “face a loss-making business”.
The pub has no commercial kitchen, due to difficulties installing one in the listed building, meaning it is unable to counter the decline in wet sales by offering food.
Richard Clark, the chartered architect who is handling the plan, notes the nature of the premises requires large energy consumption to heat and power.
Due to the layout, it needs full lighting and heating, even during low trade days and “is only busy on two nights per week”.
Wokingham Town Council’s planning committee said it is sad to see most of the pub would be removed but could understand the economic reasoning.
Mr Clark believes the current economic outlook and building restrictions combined to impact the availability of new landlords.
After advertising for five months no landlords applied to take on the tenancy.
“A more compact pub will be able to be offered at a lower rent and the associated utility bills and rates would be less. This would enable the pub to be a more viable prospect to new tenants,” said Mr Clark.
The right-hand side of the Hope and Anchor still retains its 15th century Wealden hall house – a type of vernacular mediaeval timberframed hall house traditional in the southeast of England – which would be retained as a pub.
Most of the works are focused internally and within the left-hand side of the building, which was built in the mid-19th century, as well as the construction of a rear extension to provide new toilet facilities.
The pub, which was known as The Commerical Inn at the start of the 20th century, has seen extensive work since its construction.
This includes extensions, removal of internal walls and a staircase and alterations to windows.
The building has been modified at the front, internally and the rear, where it has been added to with extensions, meaning the plan, form and footprint have changed.
Census data from the 1850s shows the site has previously been occupied by innkeepers, bricklayers, shoemakers, lodgers, scholars and housekeepers.