A 'very sad' decision - Owners of historic pub in Boston comment on conversion plans

Earlier this month, Boston Borough Council approved a planning application from George Bateman and Son Ltd to convert 4-8 Church Street – the home of The Britannia – into apartments.

The submission from the Wainfleet-based company asked for the go-ahead to create two two-bedroom apartments and two studio apartments across the ground, first and second floors.

Speaking to The Standard this week, Stuart Bateman, managing director of George Bateman and Son Ltd, said it was more likely, however, that the ground floor would be used for commercial ends.

This is the advice the company has been given based on the town centre location. The purpose of the planning application, he said, was to make the building as attractive as possible to purchasers.

“It just widened the market,” he said.

He said that the pub was one of the oldest on the company’s books, having been purchased in 1924.

He described the break with the past as a ‘very sad’, but said ‘sometimes difficult, hard, sad decisions have to me made for the overall benefit’.

Portraying it as a case of ‘use it or lose it’, he said: “It's as simple as that. It's not viable as a pub. If it was viable as a pub, we would continue using it as a pub. In this particular instance, I haven't had one telephone call saying ‘keep the Brit open’.”

He said the company’s other pubs in and around the town – such as the Carpenters Arms, in Witham Street, The Mill Inn, in Spilsby Road, or The Ball House, in Wainfleet Road – are trading well.

He put the challenges faced by the Brit to changing consumer patterns in Boston town centre, saying the demographic it attracts are now less likely to be drawn to traditional pubs, and pointed to other pubs that have closed in the area in recent times.

The company even approached others in the sector to see if they would keep the Brit open, but without success, he added.

Speaking more positively, though, he added: “On the whole people still see the benefit of well-run community pubs and on the whole Bateman pubs are doing well.”

The planning application for the Britannia also included the introduction of new street level doors and the creation of a glazed link to provide access to the mooted second floor apartment.

In the Design and Access Statement that was submitted as part of the application, agents Robert Doughty Consultancy Limited wrote: “The application proposal is for a sympathetic and sensitive conversion from public house to apartments which is considered a more sustainable use for the building and will give the building a further lease of life thereby protecting this historic asset.”

“The proposed second floor intervention will provide minimal impact to the host buildings,” it added.