A closed Lewisham pub that was the subject of a campaign to turn it into a community music venue could be turned into flats if a developer has its way.
The Ravensbourne Arms on Lewisham High Street, which was owned by the pub and property company Antic, was closed in October 2016 after planning permission was given for flats above the bar. The building was sold shortly afterwards.
While the upstairs floors were converted into seven flats, the bar has remained empty and boarded up since then.
Now Ravensbourne Arms Ltd has applied to Lewisham Council to convert the bar space into four flats.
In 2021 a Deptford record shop, Sister Midnight, launched a crowdfunding campaign to buy the space and turn it into a community music venue. Lewisham Council has since offered it the Brookdale Club in Catford, with investors’ cash being used to renovate the dilapidated site.
Planning documents show that the Ravensbourne Arms building had been on offer for £3.2 million; Sister Midnight told its crowdfunding investors in May 2022 that independent valuers had put the price at between £1.6 million and £1.9 million and that it had an offer rejected.
The developer claims that “no offer has been made for the site in the last seven years” and that the pub is unviable.
The Ravensbourne Arms was originally known as the Coach & Horses but was taken over by Antic in 2011 and renamed. The “Ravensbourne Arms” title was previously used by a pub in Coldbath Street, which itself was converted into flats in the 1990s.
The planning application can be found on the Lewisham Council website, where comments can be left too.
You must be logged in to post a comment.