CROYDON COMMENTARY: Time is running out to try to save a Victorian era pub building for community use continues, as JERRY FITZPATRICK, a former Addiscombe councillor, explains
Left to rot: the developers who own the site have allowed The Glamorgan to fall into disrepair over several years
Campaigners determined to save a historic pub in Cherry Orchard Road have come out swinging against the developer who wants to demolish it.
A young Victoria was on the throne when the Glamorgan, then called the Horse and Groom, opened on Cherry Orchard Road, close to the new railway lines, in 1855.
It remained a popular pub for more than 150 years, most recently as a successful gastropub, until it was suddenly flogged to developers in 2016. They wanted to demolish it at once and replace it will high-rise flats. They were thwarted by the Save the Glamorgan Campaign, who persuaded Croydon Council to stop the development.
The site was taken over by squatters. Owners Amar Mehli and Richard Conroy have averted their eyes as the site went to rack and ruin. In 2023, they put in a planning application for an eight-storey apartment block which contained a small ground floor area notionally for a pub, but seemingly set up to fail. That application has yet to be determined.
In August this year, the council belatedly opened its blind eye and took action against the owners for their neglect of the site. They issued a Community Protection Notice to make the site safe.
The response of the owners? They applied to demolish the historic building.
The Save the Glamorgan campaign held its annual meeting last month, where outraged members of the community hit back. They issued a lacerating attack on the owner, who they said, “relied on the fact the pub has fallen into a dilapidated state, without mentioning that, as the owner, he failed to safely secure the premises over the seven years he has owned the building.
“He must take responsibility for repairing it, not use the neglect as an opportunity to demolish it.”
Glamorgan campaigners took careful aim against the 2023 application for the eight-storey block , pointing out that it would “overshadow Ark Oval School, which is opposite the eastern elevation”.
They added: “It would be over twice the height of Georgian Court, opposite the southern elevation. It would completely overshadow the adjacent terrace of two-storey houses on Cross Road.”
Towering proposal: the most recent plans for the Glamorgan site, at eight storeys, would seriously overshadow neighbouring homes and a primary school. The small ground-floor space designated for ‘pub use’ could never be a viable business
As for the proposal purporting to provide a pub on the ground floor, the campaigners warned: “We doubt whether this vague outline would lead to the provision of a pub which would be economically viable, and fear that it is merely a hollow proposal, doomed to fail and concluding with the developer seizing the opportunity to install ground floor apartments rather than a pub.”
In an answer to a question from Addiscombe West councillor Sean Fitzsimons at the council meeting in December 2022, Croydon Mayor Jason Perry had “agreed to support the reopening of the Glamorgan pub”, the campaigners say.
Now, they are calling on the Mayor “to put his words into action and support our campaign to protect local pubs from rapacious developers”.
Ron Appleby, the chair of the Save the Glamorgan Campaign said: “The owner of the Glamorgan has tolerated the presence of squatters in his pub for seven years. He has idly allowed the pub’s fabric to crumble. And now he has the nerve to use his neglect as his pretext for demolishing the pub.”
If allowed, the owners’ contemptuous action to demolish the pub will give a green light to property developers with greedy eyes on pub sites across the borough. The Save the Glamorgan campaigners are urging all who support the retention of community pubs to oppose the application to demolish it, and to spread the word on social media.
The consultation period ends at midnight on November 8 – this Friday. So objectors are urged to get their views across to the council as soon as possible.
As Appleby said: “There has been a pub on this site continuously for nearly 200 years. When the current owner closed its doors, it was a popular community pub with a good restaurant.
“It is in an increasingly densely populated area of East Croydon, where successive councils have failed to invest social capital. The area cannot afford to lose another popular community facility in favour of more high-rise apartments.”
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thanks ive a house in Lamberts place ( blighted by the now derelict Windmill Pub) ive just objected please object to this application the area isnt the same without these lovely pubs :0(
Lamberts Place, Caroline? When did the Fox Under the Hill pub close ?
That did make me titter – he can’t even dish out hot meals let alone save whats left of Victorian history in that area. Developers have flattened more in recent times than the German bombers did.
Whats the reckoning that there will be yet another ‘mysterious fire’ now it is seen by these historic vandals as an obsticle. The crap these individuals get away with makes my heart ache. The save pub campaigners – please look after this lovely building and we are all behind you.
The Glamorgan is not that impressive a building and is at the end of the line of existing Menta tower blocks in Cherry Orchard Road. If they can only save one former pub building, I would go for the Leslie Arms every time…….!?!
yes Jim I went past the lovely Lesile Arms on Tuesday, weird that they leave the lights on during the day?
Do you expect workers on site to labour in the dark?
There’s an important difference, though, Jim. The owner of the Leslie Arms isn’t proposing to demolish it. Making arbitrary judgements about the merits of various empty pubs will do nothing to progress any hopes for the Glam.
I good point perhaps. But when this was built, the area around and up to the station looked like that, not as a 60s utopia (nightmare). It is now visually exposed, brought about by the modern tide which is concentrated. If the Leslie was standing on that corner, its’ peril would be similar. We must never regret later. Look at the Euston arch. To some, a wonderful gateway from a different time. To others, a pain to drive through, old and of no use. There is no tool or machine in the world which can put back what may be lost. Forever.
We don’t need more flats or houses in this area we need a community hub to help local people young and old to meet and have a tea/coffee and more help with the older generation to get out and meet new friends and have classes of art and crafts anything to save a local public house the greed in Croydon for just knocking down anything for money like big wages of people in charge the have don’t care attitude.
If local people young and old did use the Glam to meet and have a tea/coffee and more help with the older generation to get out and meet new friends etc. it would never have closed in the first place.
Not true.
The pub was doing good business when its owners chose to move on and sell. The buyers are property developers who closed the pub, because they want to bulldoze to build profitable flats.
I worry about this pub because of what happened to the Drum & Monkey and The Windmill. I wonder if it could be a potential victim of arson, particularly as the arsonists seem to have gotten away with their crimes.
Ultimately though buying properties on the cheap and then deliberately destroying them through neglect or arson in the hope of cashing in should be disincentivised. I think a special annual Council Tax/fines of six figures on a case by case basis should do the trick. It would be strange for people to see the sudden decline of neglected buildings as owners discover they are better off maintaining their property and if that isn’t working out for them they are always welcome to sell.
Agreed, these developers are blighting the area, The Windmill pub site is in a terrible state, the council should be taking action to ensure the buildings are maintained to a minimum level.
I fear this will somehow burn down then council will be forced the approve planning
Probably end up in flames, the usual mystery fires that occur with listed buildings that developers can’t demolish because of the heritage of the building. Torching it would make it unsafe therefore it would need to be demolished. This type of event happens all too frequently, and think it should be investigated by police forensic departments, too many pubs have been burned down (deliberately in my mind) and the perpetrators should be bought to justice