Hardy's Free House pub Greenwich to be replaced by restaurant

Hardy’s Free House in East Greenwich is scheduled to close next month to make way for a new restaurant on the site.

The plans were approved by Greenwich Council at a planning committee meeting on January 16.

The project from MAF Real Estate will see the building receiving an additional floor extension to allow the space above the pub to function as an aparthotel.

Hardy's Free House in East Greenwich

The pub on Trafalgar Road dates back to the 1800s and currently includes eight hotel rooms in its first floor, which council officers claimed had not been in use for about 10 years.

Vincenzo Stampone, director of MAF Real Estate, said at the meeting: “We bought the building in 2021, but until January 31 it will be run by the ex-owner because they still have the lease as we were waiting for the application to do the works.”

Mr Stampone said the restaurant and aparthotel will operate under new management which the developer had already employed for a similar project in Chelsea.

The applicant was asked to respond to concerns raised by neighbours of the pub, who had submitted 28 objections to the plans.

Sarah Hope, speaking on behalf of the neighbouring building’s residents association, said that the homes in her building would be directly affected by the new development.

She felt the new rooms above the pub would cast a ‘serious overbearing impact’ on the neighbouring flats.

The resident said the hotel rooms would also potentially provide views into the next door flats, causing an unacceptable loss of privacy.

She added that residents already feared for their safety, claiming a number of break-ins had occurred by people accessing the back of site.

Ms Hope said at the meeting: “We do not have a problem with the upgrade of the existing eight rooms that are there.

"We purely have a problem with the upward extension of the mansard roof. We are fully in favour of rejuvenating the area.”

Neighbours of the building also cited concerns about increased access to the flat roof at the rear of the pub.

Residents said they often saw pub guests using the area to hang washing and sit in deck chairs.

Another resident, whose submission was read out by neighbour David Tudor-Morgan, said: “The pub guests were sunbathing during lockdown there. I have no confidence that Hardy’s will begin respecting their commitments going forwards based on their previous track record.”

Claudia Stephens of Urbanist Architecture, who worked alongside MAF Real Estate on the project, said the mansard roof was intentionally included in the design of the extension to make the structure appear less overbearing.

She added that the angles of the walls in the extension also made it difficult for residents to overlook others.

Ms Stephens added: “This very historical building has fallen into bad condition, we don’t want to see it become unused in a way that these rooms have been sitting vacant.”

The planning committee voted to approve the developer’s application to convert the pub building into a restaurant and aparthotel, with a request that an alarm was added to the fire door to the flat roof to limit unnecessary use.

A condition was also added to install additional screening and frosted windows to the back of the extension to eliminate overlooking from guests.