Seen better days: the builder’s hoardings around Grade II Leslie Arms came down last year, but its future remains uncertain
Financial figures published for the sale of Grade II-listed Leslie Arms were altered ahead of the auction date, with a two-bedroom flat shown now to be paying just £800 per month in rent. EXCLUSIVE by STEVEN DOWNES
Criminal conviction: Anwar Ansari has been in trouble with the law over the past couple of years
Anwar Ansari, the multi-millionaire property developer, has refused to comment after the Grade II-listed Leslie Arms pub building was withdrawn from auction at the 11th-hour.
The landmark heritage building on the corner of Cherry Orchard Road and Lower Addiscombe Road has been in the ownership of Ansari-linked companies for more than 25 years.
It was placed for auction with estate agents Savills last month with a guide price of £1.45million.
But yesterday, with the big-money auction less than 24 hours away, Savills’ website was amended for Lot 106 to note: “Withdrawn prior”.
Today, Savills told Inside Croydon, “We are unable to disclose why the lot was withdrawn.”
Questions had been raised about the commercial valuation placed on the building, and the accommodation and tenancy schedule provided in the estate agents’ sales particulars. These showed the current owners receiving rent from tenants in four flats on the upper floors of the building, as well as £65,000 per year for use of the ground floor and cellar areasasofficespace.
Yet official records show that Ansari or his companies have never been granted planning permission to use the ground floor and basement as offices, while the tenant listed by Savills for this area of the old pub building is another Ansari-linked company.
Anwar Ansari is the managing director of AA Homes and Housing Ltd. According to Companies House records, AA Homes and Housing Ltd has its address registered at The Leslie Arms at 62, Lower Addiscombe Road.
Today, Ansari did not respond to this website’s invitation to comment about the reasons behind the abortive auction.
For sale: how the Leslie Arms originally appeared on the auction website
Ansari’s last communication with Inside Croydon was to issue a threat of legal action against this website if we did not withdraw our report from last month about the building being offered for sale at auction. “My barrister will send you corrections to all matters raised and full response in due course,” Ansari wrote.
Nothing further has been received. Our report remains in the public domain.
Ansari’s custodianship of the Leslie Arms has been controversial since the building was acquired in 2000. Ansari, the owner of the Coombe Farm complex off Lloyd Park, had wanted to use the Leslie Arms for an Islamic education centre and possible place of worship.
Withdrawn: yesterday’s update to the Savills auction website
His plans were repeatedly thwarted over two decades by the council planning department, which insisted that Ansari comply with the building’s listed status and a demand for community spaces by the broader community.
Work on site was abandoned for long periods, the building left neglected and part-hidden behind hoardings which were only removed late last year. Left unsecured, the building was at some point occupied by squatters.
The Leslie Arms was first placed on English Heritage’s Heritage At Risk register in June 2009. The Victorian Society said: “It is crucial that pieces of our heritage such as this are protected.” But that gesture did not save the period fixtures and fittings in the bar area. Ansari claims that this destruction was caused by squatters, who accessed the insecure building.
Ansari has made much of his fortune by buying dilapidated and tired office blocks and turning them into rabbit-hutch flats, generating many millions in rental income for his companies.
Last year, Ansari had a criminal conviction upheld for failing to control three large Anatolian guard dogs which went on a rampage through Lloyd Park. Ansari has not responded to questions from Inside Croydon about his appeal against his criminal conviction.
For the Leslie Arms, the tenancy schedule published by the auctioneers was significantly changed between the time when the pub building was first placed for auction and yesterday, at the time it was withdrawn from sale.
The tenancy schedule is published as a guide to potential buyers as to the rental income that they might expect if their auction bids are successful. Under the original schedule, which may have been based on figures provided by the vendor, the Leslie Arms was said to be generating £141,800 in rents per year.
Yet on the same page of the Savills website yesterday, the overall rental income had been reduced to £116,600 – a reduction of £25,000 per year, much less attractive to potential buyers.
Previously, the auctioneers’ notice suggested that the landlord was charging £1,800 per month (£21,600 per year) for a one-bedroom flat on the first floor of the Leslie Arms (as shown below).
Diminishing returns: the official auction particulars for the Lesliue Arms showed total rental income of £141,800 when first published last month
Rent decrease: revenue from the four flats in the Leslie Arms has taken a drastic cut, according to this revised schedule which was online on June 9
Yet yesterday, according to the schedule, the rental yield had suddenly decreased, without explanation, to £1,200 per month for each of two of the flats. For one of the two-bedroomed flats, the rent had been reduced to £800 per month, down from the £1,383 per month listed less than a month ago – a rent reduction of more than 40%. The typical rent for a two-bedroom flat in central Croydon right now is more than £1,600 per month.
“Does the Leslie Arm tenant know that they should now be paying £500 per month less than they were supposed to be paying just a few weeks ago?” one concerned Addiscombe neighbour asked today.
“It’s got to be the only private rented property in London in 2026 to enjoy a 40% rent reduction.”
There had already been suspicions aired over whether the rental schedule published ahead of the Leslie Arms auction had been inflated to help justify the auction guide price.
Ansari claims that he is not the owner of the Leslie Arms, despite his company being registered at the pub address.
Leslie Arms Croydon Ltd was formed only in 2022. It, too, is registered at the pub address. Leslie Arms Croydon Ltd has but one director, Sabeen Ansari, one of Ansari’s wives. Sabeen Ansari is also listed as a co-director of AA Homes and Housing Ltd.
The council’s planning records show that in various appeals over applications in respect of the Leslie Arms, going back more than 25 years. The appeals were usually led by Anwar Ansari and AA Homes and Housing.
Home from home: Anwar Ansari says he doesn’t own the Leslie Arms. But his company has its registered offices in the building
“It is unusual for someone who does not own a property to be behind planning applications or appeals relating to that property,” according to our Addiscombe source, who is familiar with the planning system.
They highlight how the planning application to convert the ground floor and cellar into offices has not been approved.
Savills’ tenancy schedule shows that Ansari, or an Ansari-linked company, has been renting those areas since September 2024, for £65,000pa. Under the original rental income schedule, that amounted to 45% of the annual income. Now, with the amended and reduced annual rental income, the rents paid for the office space without planning permission is worth 56% of the property’s listed annual income.
And here, perhaps, is another snag with the business viability as presented by the auctioneers.
The office space is shown as being let to Suburban Studios Ltd. That’s another Ansari-linked company. Anwar Ansari is one of the directors of Suburban Studios.
Last orders: the Leslie Arms’ future is uncertain again
So more than half of the Leslie Arms’ rental income is coming from an Ansari company, using an area which does not have planning permission.
When Inside Croydon contacted Savills last week, those working on the Leslie Arms’ auction said that they were unaware that £65,000 of the property’s annual income was being paid to the landlord by another Ansari-linked company.
Last week, Inside Croydon asked Ansari whether this arrangement was a deliberate attempt to inflate the rental values ahead of the auction.
Ansari has not responded to our questions.
Yesterday, the Leslie Arms was withdrawn from auction, its future once again uncertain.
Read more: Leslie Arms timeline: sad 25-year decline of heritage building
Read more: Owner Ansari seeks to avoid Leslie Arms planning conditions
Read more: Addiscombe’s Grade II-listed Victorian pub ‘at immediate risk’
Read more: Property developer ordered to pay £65,000 over dog attacks
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Wouldn’t be surprised if the building were to spontaneously combust
you have been saying this for years about leslie first you said fire now you have improved your vocab to combustion.