Final decision made on historic Preston city centre pub demolition

The demolition of a historic Preston city centre pub will definitely go ahead after a senior councillor said he could not “justify” the cost that would be involved in keeping it standing.

A final decision has now been reached about the fate of The Tithebarn, which has hung in the balance since the derelict building was effectively condemned last summer.

However, the possibility of constructing a new pub on the plot, opposite the bus station, has now been floated by Preston City Council.

The prospects for the existing 230-year-old structure fluctuated during the second half of last year – with hopes rising and falling that at least part of it could be saved.

That uncertainty looked to have been put to bed when planning permission to completely flatten the former hostelry – which served its last punters exactly a decade ago this month – was granted in November.

However, shortly before Christmas, deputy city council leader Martyn Rawlinson told a meeting of the authority that he was still struggling with the “real dilemma” of what to do with the once popular pub.

Acknowledging “the barrier” posed by the costs of retaining even a small section of the unlisted building, he said he was yet to make a definitive decision – a power which had been delegated to him by cabinet colleagues on the council..

Now, however, that conclusion has been arrived at – and the pub will be pulled down in its entirety.   The cellar beneath the venue will be retained, if it proves possible to do so, as will any bricks from the original facades – in the hope that they can reused within any replacement building that ultimately springs up.  A start date for the demolition work has yet to be determined.

The city council took control of the building – the oldest part of which is thought to date back to 1793 – shortly after the final pints were pulled back in 2016.

A report outlining the reasons for the demolition decision states that two options were explored to save the Lord Street frontage of the building – which, unlike the corresponding facade facing Tithebarn Street was believed to have had some potential to be salvaged – but both were ultimately discounted.

It also reveals that designs and cost estimates will now be drawn up for “potential” future uses of the site, including the suggested construction of “a single-story public house and beer garden”. Councillors will be asked to consider business cases for any such proposals at a later date.

Of the two remedial schemes that might have seen the Lord Street portion of the building remain upright, so-called “internal buttressing” – which would have seen a permanent structure created on the inside of the building to support its external walls – was ruled out.  That was because of the degree to which the solution would have reduced the available floorspace for a new-build to sit behind the retained facade.

The possible installation of an internal steel frame to shore up the building posed less of a problem in terms of its impact on space – but would have cost an estimated £150k and saved only the ground floor level of the historic frontage.  That figure did not include the bill for constructing the new premises beyond the facade.

The report states that the “very poor condition” of the frontages – should they have been salvageable – would have left “a poor quality streetscape on Lord Street and Tithebarn Street”.

The price tag for a new building on a cleared site is estimated to be around £210k for a single-storey premises and £350k for a two-floor property,

The Preserving Preston’s Heritage (PPH) group last year put forward a proposal to save the Lord Street part of the building and turn it into a heritage centre, exploring Preston’s history.

Speaking to the Local Democracy Reporting Service about taking the final decision to demolish The Tithebarn, Cllr Rawlinson – who is also the city council’s cabinet member for resources – said: “I cannot justify spending upwards of half a million, maybe three quarters of a million pounds – maybe more – restoring the Tithebarn pub.

“It’s a historic site, but a poor quality building and would require a significant amount of public money – for a building that only the staunchest heritage campaigners seem to value.

“Neither can I justify handing it over to a relatively new group who do not have a penny to invest in it.

“The result of either decision would be a shored-up derelict building for many months, if not years to come, at taxpayers’ expense.

“It’s not an attractive option for an area that includes the renovated bus station and new youth zone, next to a listed building [a Grade II-listed Victorian warehouse].

“I have come to the conclusion that The Tithebarn should be completely demolished, but we should reclaim any materials that could be re-used in a replacement building.

“This will improve the image of the immediate area for the short-medium term, preserve options for recognising the site’s history in the future and provide better value for money for taxpayers.”

The cost of the demolition has been estimated at £200k, which would be covered by three city council reserve funding pots – one for dilapidated buildings, another for city generation and a third general capital reserve fund.

PPH has been approached for comment on the impending demolition.

Preston City Council originally proposed levelling the site back in May, but following a campaign by PPH, a community interest company, the authority agreed to investigate the possibility of salvaging the section of the structure facing Lord Street – which the group’s own assessment had suggested was viable.

However, a further council-commissioned survey later concluded that the entire building, which stands alongside the almost complete new Vault youth zone, was “unstable and unsafe” – with even remedial work being deemed too dangerous to be carried out at the site.    That verdict led to the application for demolition which was considered by the city council’s independent cross-party planning committee in November.

The authority’s head of development management and building control, Natalie Somers, told that meeting there was a risk of an “uncontrolled collapse” at the site.

Members expressed regret at the building’s loss – with some also seeking to apportion blame – but none questioned the inevitability of its demolition.