Friday, November 14, 2008

Walpole Arms to be demolished?

An application has been made to Lewisham Planning for permission to knock down the Walpole Arms in New Cross Road and replace it with a new hotel. The 60-bedroomed five-storey hotel would replace 403 to 407 New Cross Road – including the pub (photo of pub below by Ewan M at Flickr).The full application is on the Lewisham Planning website. It is intended that there would be a restaurant on the ground floor. There is also some more detail on the architects’ site, Kennedy Twaddle -their impression of what it would look like is show below:

Consultation is now open, with a planned decision date of the 6th February 2008.If you would like to comment on this application please send an email to planning@lewisham gov.uk, including the Application Number (DC/08/70131/X), your name, address, comment and reason for interest.
The Walpole dates back to at least 1881 and seems to have originally been known as the South Eastern Distillery (until around 1915). The pub featured in a case at the Old Bailey in 1884 when a man was convicted of using dodgy counterfeit coins at the Centurion, the South Eastern Distillery and the Royal Albert. There is still some nice Victorian tiling inside. As well as food and drink, the pub has hosted music sessions and at one time a Polish night.
It might not be my own favourite New Cross pub, but the thought of another pub disappearing from the area makes the heart sink.
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5 comments:

  1. CarolineLD14 November 2008 at 09:22

    I also wonder how much demand there will be for a hotel in Deptford?

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  2. Anonymous14 November 2008 at 09:37

    Um, the architect being rather optimistic there with people's desire to sit at tables on the pavements of New Cross Road...

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  3. .14 November 2008 at 20:48

    From the architect's website it looks like they think they might pick up some trade linked to Goldsmiths. I guess if you were a parent popping down to visit your beloved student offspring you might be tempted, but then there are plenty of places in Greenwich already.

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  4. Anonymous15 November 2008 at 18:18

    What a horribly brutal ugly building; it makes the rather plain Walpole Arms look beguiling in comparison.

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  5. bob17 November 2008 at 11:45

    I can't believe this artists' impression. Looking at the site, I wondered if Kenneddy Twaddle are actually a hoax!

    The Walpole is absolutely not one of my favourite pubs in NX, but it has a beautiful interior, almost perfectly preserved, and it is a busy, popular pub serving a good cross section of people: a much needed resource.

    I have nothing against a hotel in the area: in fact, I think we need one. But I am against the destruction of another pub and of a classic interior.

    (Re Eleanargh: actually, lots of people [smokers] currently sit outside the Walpole, despite the evident madness in doing so.)

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