Westminster Council is poised to order a property developer to rebuild a London pub brick-by-brick after it was torn down without notice last month.
Bulldozers reduced the Carlton Tavern in Maida Vale to rubble on April 8 without submitting an application under the provisions of the Town and Country Planning Order (1995). The legislation requires that a formal request must be submitted to the Council and that demolition should not proceed for 56 days following the application.
Since there was no such application for prior approval – or a request as to whether the building had been nominated as an Asset of Community Value (ACV) under recent legislation – the developer, CLTX Ltd, is deemed to be in breach of planning controls and subject to enforcement action.
The enforcement order is due to be served on CLTX on Tuesday requiring them to “recreate in facsimile the building as it stood immediately prior to its demolition.” It is believed to be the first example of a local authority issuing such an order.
A report from The Director of Planning at Westminster Council states that, had the Carlton Tavern not been demolished, it is likely it would have been added to the National Heritage List for England as a building of special architectural or historic interest, at the request of Historic England.
It goes on to recommend that, subject to confirmation from the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, the building must be rebuilt from the rubble on the site where possible. This includes the interior, which must be restored using “fragments that are sufficiently intact to recreate details such as internal joinery and plasterwork.”
The Carlton Tavern was built in the early 1920s, replacing a pub of the same name which was destroyed by a German Zeppelin bomb in 1918. Earlier this year Westminster Council refused an application to demolish the existing building and redevelop the site to provide residential accommodation.
The refusal followed local concern about the proposals, which led to the launch of an online petition and numerous emails and phone calls to council officers. The unauthorised demolition was captured on camera by passers-by and subsequently reported to the Council.
The Council said: “Had the developer provided notice of their intention to demolish the building, as required under the new legislation, the City Council would have been in a position to entertain any requests for nomination of the land as an ACV from the local community.
“Do to the lack of notification, this due process could not be followed and the intent of the legislation thwarted.”
CLTX is expected to appeal against the enforcement order.
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