Plans submitted to convert the derelict Hen and Chicks pub in Luton into ten flats after years of disuse and fire damage.
A developer wants to convert it to build ten flats. Seven flats would be in the pub itself. They will knock down a garage for three more. The goal is to improve this run-down area.
The plan includes a garden and space for ten bikes, but no car parking. The pub is very old, dating back to the early 1700s.
There have been other plans for it before. One similar idea for flats got withdrawn last year. The pub looks bad now, and its future was uncertain. It’s a local building, so it should get protection.
The Hen and Chicks shut down in 2019. The brewery looked for someone to manage it, without success. They then decided to sell the property. Plans to turn it into a Turkish restaurant or a halal butcher shop also failed.
Ihan Nurhaki is behind the newest plan and has proposed similar ideas before. Vandals and homeless people targeted the old pub. Police were called several times because of this. A fire badly damaged the pub last October.
The pub was built in 1702, starting as a farmhouse. It became a pub in 1746. Brickmakers and farm workers went there often. Later, it was a bus and tram stop as Chatham grew. At one time, a forge stood by the pub, which burned down long ago in Luton Road.
The pub, once named Hen and Chickens, was a local hub. Many similar pubs in Luton closed over time and became homes. Dock workers and soldiers were their customers.
A plan to fix nearby shops failed. The plan wanted to build a big block of flats near the Medway Food Centre, a cafe, and a restaurant. The buildings were described as broken down. They wanted to tear them down to build flats with thirteen one-bedroom and eleven two-bedroom apartments, shops, offices, and bike storage.