IT IS said that if the fire at the Saltergate Inn, on the moors between Whitby
and Pickering, ever goes out, the ghost of a Customs and Excise officer will
haunt the village. Some say that the spirit of the man, whose body is
believed to have been buried under the fire by smugglers, will bring plague.
The owners of the 17th-century building are now risking his displeasure. The
pub is closed down and they are seeking planning permission to convert it
into 13 holiday homes. If their application is successful, the Saltergate
Inn will join thousands of former licensed premises that are becoming homes,
either by conversion or being demolished to clear the way for new-build.
It is not difficult to see why the owners chose to convert. According to Land
Registry figures, the average price of a property here is almost £200,000,
which compares favourably with to the Yorkshire and Humberside average of
£145,583, and holding steady. There is no shortage of buyers seeking second
or retirement homes, relatively little stock, and new-builds are restricted
to local people in most districts.
“It would be very rare to grant planning permission for a new-build in open
countryside,” says a spokesperson for the North York Moors National Park
Authority.
“My clients, who are heavily involved with the licensed trade, have
strenuously attempted to sell Saltergate Inn as a going concern, as soon as
it was decided not to proceed with a former project for an hotel extension,
without success,” the architect Graham Dickinson said in a statement to the
park authority.
If nobody wants a picturesque, historic pub such as the Saltergate Inn, then
what hope is there for rundown boozers? In February the Campaign for Real
Ale (Camra) reported that every month 56 pubs in the UK close their doors
for ever, and 1,300 pubs are shut with an uncertain future. “We can’t allow
ourselves to be in a situation where communities across the UK are without
the amenity of a public house,” argues Camra’s chief executive, Mike Benner.
“At a time when more and more amenities are being lost, it is time for
licensees, residents and local authorities to make a stand.” But drive
around any suburb, town centre or village, and it is obvious that scores of
pubs – if they are open at all – are devoid of customers. And some are such
amazing old buildings that it seems a shame to leave them to rot, waiting
for a new landlord (and new customers) who might never arrive.
Changing work and leisure patterns and severe penalties for drink-driving have
contributed to the decline in pub-going over the past two decades. The ban
on smoking in public places can only make things worse for struggling
landlords: the Vintners’ Federation of Ireland reports that 500 public
houses have closed in the Republic of Ireland since the smoking ban was
introduced there in March 2004.
It is obvious that property opportunists will swoop in to make money on the
redevelopment potential of empty pubs. Camra accuses them of exploiting a
“legal loophole which allows developers to demolish pubs without the need
for planning permission”.
Ben Marshalsay, a land agent at Knight Frank in the West Midlands, sees it
differently. He has overseen the purchase of several disused pubs in the
Black Country’s former industrial heart-lands for residential redevelopment.
In most cases they have been demolished; the large footprint of pub car
parks provides plenty of space for building new houses.
Marshalsay points out that, by reusing existing sites, owners fulfil
government targets on the development of brown-field land, thus preventing
the threat of housing sprawl into greenfield areas.
He adds: “It is also apparent that local authorities are largely supportive of
schemes that will herald the redevelopment and revitalisation of sites which
have fallen into disrepair and, quite frankly, have become an eyesore.” At
The Engine in Hampton-in-Arden, Solihull, for example, a Victorian pub has
been converted into four apartments by the developer Charles Church, and ten
houses have been incorporated on the site. There is one 801 sq ft, two-bed
ground-floor apartment with two parking spaces and garden/deck remaining for
sale at £270,000, and three three-bedroom houses, priced at £340,000 (1,194
sq ft), £345,000 (1,106 sq ft) and £350,000 (1,199 sq ft).
In the village of Minskip, near Boroughbridge in North Yorkshire, Jan and
Michael Featherstone are turning the trend on its head – almost. They moved
from Harrogate into their six-bedroom home, the former Crown public house,
in January. The Crown became a private residence several years ago.
The Featherstones, who have two teenage daughters and run their own catering
business, are turning the downstairs of the house into a restaurant – The
Feathers – and converting the first floor into four-bedroom living
accommodation for themselves.
“It would be lovely if we could live somewhere else,” says Jan, 42. “But we
want to get the business off the ground and need to invest in that. The
price of property around here would make it impossible to do both at the
moment.” The Featherstones’ house had originally been on the market for
several months at £450,000, but the price was dropped to £385,000 before
they purchased it. Jan is inspired by the scope of the place, but advises
that no one should underestimate the work involved in converting a building
of this size (2,813 sq ft in total), age and layout.
Meeting the demands of building regulations is tough; the whole of the
downstairs, for example, has required sound-proofing. “It is a serious
undertaking,” she adds, “but we will end up with somewhere that is totally
customised to our needs.” The look she is going for in the restaurant is
“comfortable country style, with open fires and a nice, relaxing
atmosphere”. As far as she knows, no one will complain if the log fires are
not to their liking. Knight Frank, 0121 2002220; charleschurch.com
FACTFILE
There are 58,187 pubs in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland
(British Beer and Pub Association).
Of these, the majority (23,500) are tenanted or leased from a pub company,
7,500 are managed on behalf of a company, and 17,800 are independently
owned. The rest are owned by breweries.
In February the Campaign for Real Ale found that 80 per cent of pubs that had
closed were in urban areas.
The smoking ban in Scotland led to a 5 per cent drop in drinks sales,
year-on-year.
The British Institute of Innkeeping predicts that 5,000 pubs will close within
four years.
