Save the Beehive Campaign (Planning Appeal Feb 2024)

February 2024 – Fighting the Planning Appeal

Thanks to everyone who objected to the original planning application in 2023 to turn the Beehive Pub into residential accommodation. The applicants have now decided to appeal against Southwark Council’s decision to refuse planning permission and so we are asking people to help up fight that appeal. With the help of a number of groups including the Southwark Law Centre and the Walworth Community Pub project, we have put together the how-to-appeal guide below.

Again we are hugely grateful to everyone who has supported this fight so far – it is incredibly appreciated.

How-to-guide

• If you would like to object to the proposed development, you will need to make a representation. You can do this by clicking this link and entering the 7-digit case reference number 3334574 on the right-hand side of the page.
  • On the next page, there will be a “Make representation” button in the top-right corner. Then click “Save and Continue” and provide the details requested. You should select “Interested Party / Person”.
  • You can type your comments into the box on the page, or make them in a separate document which you then upload.
• You will need to submit your representations by latest 28 March 2024.
• Anyone can make representations about the proposed development – you do not need to have commented on the Southwark Council original application (see below for more details).
• As the appeal is being decided by written representations, there will not be a formal inquiry or hearing. The developer, Southwark Council, and all other interested parties will submit written representations, and the Planning Inspector will make a decision based on them.
• Please note that all of the original objections that people made (136 objections!) are sent to the Planning Inspector as part of the appeal process.

Grounds for objection

Below is a list of proposed objections which you might consider including in your representations. Feel free to put into your own words and add your own further points, but try to keep your response short and concise. Please do not feel that you have to cover all of them – just some of those that most resonate with how you feel about the Beehive!

• The Beehive PH has a high social, cultural and economic value to the local community. It has a distinctive identity that should be protected. [Please add your own personal evidence about what the pub has meant and means to you]
• The social and cultural value of the Beehive is reflected in its status as an Asset of Community Value. This should be given significant weight.
• The Beehive has a unique history that gives it further cultural and heritage value. The site has been a pub at least since the 1820s and has links to the foundation of Surrey County Cricket Club.
• It is an inclusive space that created a sense of belonging and pride of place in the community. It has a ‘country pub’ in a dense urban area and a feel that fosters a sense of community that is rare in London.
• It is at the heart of the local area with a wide range of activities centred on the pub. These include a place where community events such as quizzes are held, a venue for funerals, birthdays and weddings, meetings and, in an area where venues are thin on the ground, somewhere where local organisations and community groups can hold gatherings and social events.
• The Beehive adds to the vibrancy and vitality of the area, and supports the continued vibrancy of the Walworth Road as a local high street and East Street Market.
• It is a rare and cherished local amenity in West Walworth which is a largely residential area.
• The scale, flexibility and warmth of the pub means that people from a wide range of demographics tend to use the Beehive. As a result, the Beehive brings people from different communities in the area together. This is unusual as other pubs in Walworth have tended to become hyper-local and can struggle to attract groups such as families.
• If the Beehive reopened, there would be high demand for it – even despite the years of closure. Local people talk about it a great deal as to when it might re-open.
• The huge loss of pubs across Southwark and all of London makes it even more important to protect pubs.
• The pub also offers an opportunity for employment and support for the night-time economy that will be lost.
• The proposed development will only create one home, and this small benefit is far outweighed by the harm caused by the loss of the Beehive.
• The Beehive has a strong and viable future as a pub. The Walworth Community Pub is now well established and they and a number of other groups are known to be keen to run the pub and to take advantage of the opportunity to develop a community partnership and ownership approach to secure The Beehive for the long term.

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May 2023 – Planning Application 23/AP/0481

Object to planning application (23/AP/0481) that would end the Beehive’s 200-year + history as a pub in West Walworth.

The owners of the Beehive Public House (62 Carter Street SE17 3EW) have made a new planning application (23/AP/0481) to Southwark Council for a change of use of the ground floor from its current use as a pub to residential accommodation. As you may know, there were more than 250 objections to a similar application in October 2021 which was refused by Southwark Council.

The Walworth Society objects to this application on a number of grounds and is once again encouraging as many people as possible to tell Southwark Council to refuse this application which would result in the permanent loss of an historic pub which has served the local community in West Walworth for well over 200 years. We believe that the Beehive remains a viable business that should be brought back into use as soon as possible and that it can continue to be successful well into the future. The applicants have in no way made the case that it is not viable as a pub.

2. How to Object

Below is an easy-to-use guide for objecting to the application. We set out some of the grounds that you might use along with some of the elements of planning policy that we believe will give Southwark Council extremely strong grounds to reject this application.

a. Go to the Southwark Council Planning Portal

b. Type in application number: 23/AP/0481

c. Go to the box Make a comment.

d. Enter your details – these will not appear on the published comment – and put down in your own words the grounds as to why you are objecting.

e. Grounds – we are suggesting that some or all of the following might be relevant in any objection:

• This application for a change of use from a pub to residential goes against Southwark Council policies to protect pubs from development. In the recently adopted Southwark Plan (Policy 42), Southwark Council underscored the importance of pubs in terms of their contribution to the historic character and social fabric of an area. For well over 200 years the Beehive has played an important role in Walworth as a place that local people can meet and socialise.
• Policy P42 stresses that importance of retaining pubs that have been listed as Assets of Community Value. The Beehive has twice been successfully listed as an Asset of Community Value (firstly in 2015 and again in 2020) which underscores its importance to the local area. Southwark’s planning policy is clear that a pub having an ACV is an important factor when assessing a planning application and this should be a major ground for rejecting this application.
• The applicant has not proved that the Beehive is not a viable pub. In the planning statement, it is claimed that the pub was marketed in the period July 2018 to February 2020 but Policy 42 requires this marketing to occur immediately before the planning application. There is no evidence that this has happened.

• The Beehive is important to local people and contributes hugely to the character of West Walworth – an area which is characterised by high density housing but with relatively few amenities for people locally.
• The Beehive is a community hub that is unique in West Walworth welcoming people from diverse backgrounds, being a friendly and relaxed place where people can form friendships with other people who go there, having an intimate atmosphere and, at the same time, playing an important role for local organisations which can use the pub for meetings, other gatherings and social events.
•  The Beehive is an important local landmark in West Walworth which many people know and value and want to keep. As an open pub it is a valuable heritage asset that links the area with its historic roots both to the time when the area was market gardens south of the City of London and also to the birth of cricket in London and the formation of Surrey County Cricket Club.

If you would like any more detail on any of the above, the full objection that the Walworth Society has submitted appears here

Any questions do not hesitate to get in touch via the Contact Us box on the WS Home page. Thanks for all your help!

3. The significance and history of the Beehive

A. We have summarised the points that people made about the significance of Beehive in the 2020 Asset of Community Value listing here.

B. A short history of the Beehive PH by Diana Cochrane can be viewed and downloaded here. There are some amazing maps and images of the development of the local area and its focus on the Beehive.

C. There is also a fabulous and entertaining history of the Beehive written by Neil Crossfield in Southwark News in January 2022:

Murder, shooting parties and a parachuting monkey: 200 years of Walworth’s Beehive pub