A fresh plan has been submitted to replace a pub in Reading that has been closed for more than a decade with flats and a shop.
The former Battle Inn pub has stood for years at the junction of Bedford Road and Oxford Road, within walking distance of Reading town centre.
The pub went through a number of iterations, going from the Battle Inn to ‘Gospoda’, which functioned as a Polish pub and as an Afro-Caribbean bar.
More recently, it was called The Royal, and was open from 2013 to 2015 under this name.
But that year, the pub closed, and it has been boarded up since then.
It has also been the subject of street art by Nathan Bowen, with his trademark ‘Demon Headz’ stencil being painted on the side of the building.
A plan has been submitted to Reading Borough Council to replace it with a five-storey building containing four one-bed and two two-bed apartments and a retail store.
Justifying the project, a planning agent wrote: “The aim of the design is to deliver a high-quality building appropriate to a prominent corner site, and respond positively to the varied townscape character.
“It will also create a building that successfully turns the corner between Oxford Road and Bedford Road, optimise the use of a constrained urban site; preserve the setting of nearby heritage assets; and provide good quality residential accommodation with acceptable environmental living conditions.”
The project follows a similar plan to replace the pub with six flats that was submitted in 2018.
This plan was discussed at a council planning applications committee meeting in May 2019.
Then-councillor Tony Page said: “It was the Battle Inn for many years, serving a very respectable pint. Unlike many pubs in the area, this was a genuine loss.”
Cllr John Ennis (Lab, Southcote) added: “I remember drinking in the Battle Inn. It had a very tasty reputation.
“I once went in there with a friend, and we were the only two in there, as well as the two bar staff. And there was a fight between the two bar staff.
“We have to send a message to any would-be developers: great to have you, but we need affordable housing, and therefore we have to be strong on this.”
At the time, the application was refused as officers judged that the project would be an over development of the site.
However, this decision was overturned on appeal to the government’s planning inspectorate.
Details for external materials followed in 2022, but nothing happened after that.
The applicant, Anrish Properties, will pay the council for the provision of affordable housing elsewhere in the borough.
You can view the application by typing reference PL/26/0237 into the council’s planning portal.
