I had a look at the planning application for the Queen’s Head this evening. Regrettably, the application is for a proposed conversion to 14 (yes, 14) bedsits.
I’d clearly misread the Council notice in the street, concluding that the proposal related to flats. Since this is a conservation area, there aren’t major exterior changes.
The pub may have been pretty nasty, and it’d be wrong for an old building (already in a poor state of repair), to slowly fall apart. But a conversion to bedsits feels to be simply a money making venture, with little regard to either the conservation area or the community.