Plans for The Crown to be turned into housing

Full planning application has been made to convert The Crown in Reepham into a residential dwelling.

Plans have been submitted to Broadland District Council’s planning department to change the building’s use from a public house to a five-bedroom house.

The pub in Ollands Road, just out of the town centre, was originally three cottages that were converted into a single two-storey dwelling in the 19th century. It opened as a public house in 1861.

The Crown, Ollands Road, Reepham

 

The original owners owned a large amount of land around the area of the pub, and the hostelry became a favourite location for people travelling on the new railway system of the time – either leaving or arriving at nearby Reepham station, which opened in 1882 and closed to passengers in 1952.

Under the latest plans, the appearance of the unlisted building will not change dramatically from the current elevations, according to the applicants, Mr and Mrs Garron and Helen Monk of Land of Green Ginger, Dereham Road, Reepham, who are proposing to buy the freehold from Staffordshire-based Punch Taverns – providing planning permission is granted.

If the plans are approved, the existing customer car park will be converted into a private garden with space for three cars, according to an amended plan dated 15 January 2013.

The property with a total land area of 0.4 acres has been up for sale for two years and the pub’s closure had been feared for some time.

According to the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA), some 18 pubs a week were closing in the UK, up from 12 in 2011.

The demise of The Crown will leave Reepham with just one public house – the Kings Arms – and the Old Brewery House, which has a public bar. In the latter half of the 19th century, the town was awash with ale drinking establishments – there were 14 of them.

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