High Wycombe pub on London Road to be knocked down and replaced with new flats

A High Wycombe pub will be knocked down and replaced with new flats if a planning application is approved.

The Pheasant on 99 London Road next to Kwik Fit has been closed for around four years and has been boarded up since.

Wellington Pub Company has applied for planning permission to knock down the derelict boozer and build nine two-bedroom flats in its place.

Its plans, submitted to Buckinghamshire Council, state that the new apartments will be spread across three floors with a lift for step-free access and a communal rear garden.

Each flat would feature an open plan living, kitchen and dining area, two bathrooms and its own private yard or balcony.

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Car parking at the former pub would be reconfigured to provide 11 spaces, one per flat and two for guests, with one of them a disabled space.

Bicycle racks will also be provided behind the car park, which will be accessed by residents with electronic key fobs.

The site, which is on the corner of a roundabout, will also keep its existing access off London Road if plans are approved.

Wellington Pub Company’s plans state: “The proposed development is to be of a high quality design and materials, that sits well in its site and offers an attractive welcome to High Wycombe on this important gateway site.”

The Pheasant is identified by the council as meeting the criteria for inclusion on the Bucks Local Heritage list due to its age and architectural interest.

It is an ‘Arts and Craft’ style pub built in red brick with decorative terracotta and lighter red brick detailing with a slate roof.

The new plans to demolish the building and replace it with flats follow a previous application for planning permission, which was refused on appeal due to the ‘poor outlook, aspect and arrangement of some apartments’.

Of the former proposals, planners said: “The building would comprise a footprint formed by a series of awkward shapes and angles, thereby failing to successfully take the building around the corner.

“The proposed block of flats would be three storeys high and be significant in scale and bulk, in stark contrast with the more modest built form located around the perimeter of the roundabout.”

The new plans state that there will be ‘ample storage space’ and that bedrooms will exceed national minimum space standards.

A planning document states: “The proposal has been carefully and sensitively designed to provide high quality accommodation that responds positively to the local context and scale.

“The design respects the character of the area and enhances the street scene with good design and materiality.”

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