A Brighton pub set to be demolished to make way for five houses is closing its doors at the end of this month.
The freeholders of the Hanover in Queen’s Park Road were first given permission to knock it down and build houses there in 2002.
And because it started work on building houses specified in a later scheme granted in 2005, this means that permission still stands.
The pub and its remaining garden will now close its doors on Saturday 25 March.
The leaseholders of the pub, Indigo Leisure Ltd, said that that the freeholders were selling the pub to another developer.
Jon Wilson, from Indigo Leisure, said: “The freehold owners obtained planning permission many years ago to replace the pub with housing.
“They are about to sell the property to a developer to achieve this.
“The pub will close on Saturday 25 March. We are sad to see it go but respect the need for more housing in the city.
“We are unaware of any timescales by the new owners.”
The freeholders, Graderich, have submitted several planning applications for the site in the past 20 years.
They are using a permission granted in 2005 for a total of nine houses to be developed on and around the site. Four of these, in Down Terrace and St Luke’s Road, were built soon afterwards.
The plans were amended in 2020 to bring the houses forward to align with other houses in the road and the permission remains valid from the original approved application (BH2005/00604).
Brighton and Hove City Council last year brought in new planning rules requiring anyone wanting to convert or demolish a pub to market it for two years for let or for sale at a reasonable price with no offers before plans will be approved.
But this new policy is not retrospective, so has no bearing on the 2005 permission, which did not put a time limit on its completion.
Aneesa Chaudry, who runs the Local Vocal Parents Community Pub Choir who sing at the Hanover, has organised a goodbye event at the pub from 8pm on Thursday 23 March.
Graderich were contacted for comment.
A shame to see this, from a local history perspective: this was one of many pubs in the Brighton area which was either built or (as in this case) redesigned by the prolific Brighton-born architect John Leopold Denman. Just a year later (1928) he redesigned the Freemasons Tavern in Hove in its present style. Probably his best known pub locally is the Grenadier.
Thank you for the information Mr Davis, very interesting local knowledge, I shall take a gander.
It needs to be listed as an ACV. Needs to be done this week.
21 signatures are needed and submitted to council.
Why? There’s plenty of other pubs in the area.
Richard you are right.
After the owners made a bog deal about how this wouldnt happen #killallpropertydevelpers
If its still open as a pub it should not close, this is pure greed by the owner. It should be blocked.
Yes! Green Councillors have spectacularly failed on this and on other issues concerning heritage as well as transport. List as an A.C.V. first.
Greens had about 6 seats and little influence back in 2005 when this planning permission was granted, and the council was Labour-run.
The present very developer-friendly planning laws are down to 13 years of Conservative-led national government.