It is never easy to please all the people all the time, but when thousands of local people ask us to step in to fight for their iconic and popular local pubs, it is incumbent upon us to do what we can. Several years ago Cllr Lindsey Hall presented two petitions to Westminster City Council in protest against the closure and redevelopment of The Clifton in Clifton Hill and The Star in St John's Wood Terrace.
Working closely with the St John's Wood Society and utilising our Government's new legislation to protect "Assets of Community Value", we were able to persuade the owner of The Clifton to see what he might do instead of his proposed residential basement development to reinstate the pub. Roll forward to 2017 and months of detailed negotiations with our Planning and Licensing Departments, we are delighted to welcome the new proprietors to what will be a very carefully managed and special gastro-pub and look forward to the formal re-opening soon! We are very grateful to the immediate neighbours of The Clifton who have had mixed feelings about the re-opening of the pub, but wish to re-assure them of our commitment to ensure a professionally managed pub can and will work well in our local community.
The future of The Star is less certain; having achieved "ACV" status Cllr Lindsey Hall - again supported by the SJW Society - made representations at a lengthy hearing with the Planning Inspector who found in our favour. We are delighted to report that the developer is now looking to bring forward a development that reopens the pub at ground and basement levels, with private flats above. We will continue to do all we can to help achieve this; as there will be very many happy locals!
