A pub in Bilston faces being bulldozed and replaced with houses under new plans revealed today which could see yet another Black Country bar confined to history.
Proposals have been submitted to Wolverhampton City Council to demolish the White Rose in Temple Street and build six houses. If the development is approved, it will become the latest in a long line of once-popular pubs to bite the dust across the city following a downturn in trade. Bilston councillor Bert Turner said today the situation was “tragic”.
He said: “There are so many pubs closing at the moment – it is tragic that yet another one looks as though it is going to be bulldozed.
“Lots of pubs like this have lots of land and it seems as though it is easier to get rid of them and build houses. It is another nail in the coffin for the community pub.”
The housing plans have been revealed as residents in Penn prepare for a development to be built on the site of a former landmark pub there.
The Battle of Britain pub now been completely re-duced to rubble as part of a project to transform the site with six semi-detached homes and three terraced houses.
Campaigners have been demanding action at the site since the pub closed down in November 2005 and was left to stand as a rotting eyesore.
The pub was once a popular local, and was mentioned by chef Nigel Slater in his memoirs of growing up in Penn.
But the half-acre site, on the corner of Birchwood Road and Sandringham Road, has been constantly targeted by vandals since it closed its doors and the site changed hands several times.
Not all traditional pubs are reporting doom and gloom, though.
In Bilston the Olde White Rose in Lichfield Road has recently won planning permission to transform a former printworks next door into a new hotel.
More than £650,000 will be ploughed into the venture which will feature en-suite bedrooms, each with a flat-screen TV.
The development is the brainchild of John Denston, who has owned the Camra award-winning pub for the past 10 years and transformed it into one of the region’s finest for traditional ales.
One Comment
The pub seems like a good start.