Property developers want to turn the former Shakespeare Inn public house in Sutton in Ashfield into seven flats. A planning application to convert the disused premises in High Pavement was submitted to Ashfield’s district planners this week.
The proposals envisage seven one-bedroomed flats over three floors for the site, which has been empty for a number of years.
By 2017, the premises had been “left vacant for a number of years”, according to advice given to councillors by planning officials. This was part of an application for the pub to be demolished to make way for a car park. Officers at the time said that the demolition would result in the “loss of a non designated heritage asset” and have an impact on the historic setting of the nearby Grade II listed United Reformed Church. Councillors refused the application.
In early 2018, an application to convert the premises into six apartments was withdrawn. A revised plan for five apartments was given conditional approval later that year. But the conversion wasn’t completed.
A potted history of the Shakespeare Inn, written by Heather Faulkes on the Closed Pubs website, explains that a licence to sell spirits at the Shakespeare Tavern was turned down in 1879, despite the application claiming that the property had been a beer house for 17 or 18 years by then.
The records show a number of failed applications for a full licence, during which the premises seemed to be operated as a beer house. One record, the 1907 History of Sutton, said that the beer house was locally known as “The Shakey”. Maps show that the current building was likely to have been constructed between 1899 and 1918 as the site plan on maps of these dates are different. Planners will make a decision on the current proposals by 2 July.
