Historic Wokingham pub to be revamped for flat

The Hope and Anchor, a Grade II listed building located on Station Road in Wokingham, will be split into two units – one remaining as a public house and the other as a self-contained four-bedroom flat. 

The planning application states that the overall costs of running the premises are increasing to a point where both the landlord and the brewery “face a loss-making business”. 

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The pub has no commercial kitchen, due to difficulties installing one in the listed building, meaning it is unable to counter the decline in ‘wet sales’ by offering food.

Chartered Architect Richard Clark, who is handling the plan, notes that the nature of the premises requires large energy consumption to heat and power. Due to the layout, it needs full lighting and heating even during low trade days and “is only busy on two nights per week”. 

Wokingham Town Council’s planning committee said it is “sad” to see that most of the pub would be removed but “could understand the economic reasoning”. 

Mr Clark suggests that the current economic outlook and building restrictions combined to “impact the availability” of new landlords to take on the tenancy, after advertising for five months received “no applications at all”. 

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“A more compact pub will be able to be offered at a lower rent and the associated utility bills and rates would be less. This would enable the pub to be a more viable prospect to new tenants,” he added. 

The right-hand side of the Hope and Anchor still retains its 15th century Wealden hall house – a type of vernacular medieval timber-framed hall house traditional in the southeast of England – which would be retained as a public house. 

Most of the works are focused internally and within the left-hand side of the building, which was built in the mid-19th century, as well as the construction of a rear extension to provide new toilet facilities for the pub. 

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The Grade II pub, which was known as the Commerical Inn at the start of the 20th century, has experienced extensive alterations since its construction, including extensions, removal of internal walls, removal of staircase, and alteration of windows. 

Wokingham Borough Council (Image: Wokingham Borough Council)

The building has been substantially altered to the front, internally and the rear, where it has been added to with extensions, meaning the plan, form and footprint have changed drastically. 

Census data from 1850s shows that the building has previously been occupied by innkeepers, bricklayers, shoemakers, lodgers, scholars and house keepers.