Plans submitted to convert historic pub in Boston into apartments

​George Bateman and Son Ltd had applied to Boston Borough Council for permission to make the alterations at 4-8 Church Street – the home of The Britannia.

The Wainfleet-based brewery hope to create four apartments at the address across the site’s three floors.

Two of the four would have two bedrooms, and two would be studio apartments, according to the plans submitted to the council for approval.

The proposal also includes the introduction of new street level doors and the creation of a glazed link to provide access to the proposed second floor apartment.

As a Grade II listed building, The Britannia is classed by Historic England as ‘of special interest’.

“Once a building is listed, changes which might affect its special interest have to be managed through the planning system,” Heritage England states on its website.

In the Design and Access Statement that has been submitted as part of the application, agents Robert Doughty Consultancy Limited write: “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 adds.

The Britannia – or ‘the Brit’, as it is known locally – has been owned by ​George Bateman and Son Ltd since at least the first half of the 20th century. Its story begins much earlier, though.

A Heritage Impact Statement presented by Austin Heritage Consultants has been submitted as part of the application and provides insight into the building’s past.

It notes that originally the Britannia was based solely in 4 Church Street. Expansion into 6 Church Street and then 8 Church Street took place during the 20th century.

The statement traces the history of the site back to the early 18th century – making it older than the Assembly Rooms – and the name Britannia to 1870.

“The earliest mapping evidence for development within the site dates from 1741 and it shows terraced properties along the southwestern side of Church Street (former Butchers Row) across the northeastern halves of 4, 6 and 8 Church Street and facing the street front, with open areas/yards to the rear (southwest) facing the riverside. They have been built within the medieval core of Boston between the Church of St Botolph and the Market Place and predate the prominent 1822 Assembly Rooms to the southeast of the study area.

“The buildings reflect 18th century development in Butchers Row that was later to become Church Street and historically, it was an extension of the Market Place housing businesses and dwellings, including the beer house/tavern of the Britannia that was apparently first licensed in 1870 (but presumed in occupation as a beer house and/or dining rooms for a considerable period of time prior to this).”