Former East London Pub to Become Residential Flats After 12 Years

A former pub in East London, long vacant for over a decade, has been granted permission for conversion into residential flats. The Tower Hamlets Council approved the transformation of the Railway Tavern, located at 131 Globe Road near Bethnal Green, into two one-bedroom flats, citing a persistent lack of demand for the property as a public house.

The Railway Tavern has remained empty since at least 2014. According to council planning regulations, the conversion of pubs to other uses can only occur if developers demonstrate that no one is willing to operate them. In the case of the Railway Tavern, property developer IPE Developments successfully proved this point.

In a process that began in 2021, IPE Developments marketed the property as both a pub and a community space at a rental price of £25,000 per year. Council officers assessed this price as reasonable, particularly compared to the previous proposed rent of £45,000 a year, which had been deemed too high for the area by the government’s Planning Inspectorate in a 2020 review.

The council’s latest approval, granted on March 7, 2024, followed a thorough evaluation of the marketing efforts, which indicated a reasonable demonstration of the lack of demand for the pub at the advertised rent. The planning officers noted in their assessment that “the proposal has reasonably demonstrated a lack of demand for the public house marketed at an appropriate rental rate.”

The Railway Tavern was demolished and rebuilt with residential flats above it in 2018. Despite this development, the ground floor pub has not attracted any takers since its completion. A prior application to convert the space into flats was rejected in 2019, but the council’s recent decision reflects a shift in circumstances regarding demand for public houses in the area.

As the landscape of community spaces continues to evolve, this conversion illustrates how shifting market needs can reshape urban environments. With the approval in place, IPE Developments plans to move forward with the project, contributing to the housing supply in East London while addressing the ongoing challenges faced by traditional pubs.