Fire at Charlton pub
Well, this was wholly predictable.
The Victoria pub in Charlton saw 25 firefighters battle a blaze last night which saw the ground floor damaged. Just last week I covered it on a list of threatened pubs in the area. As the picture shows, it has been exposed to the elements for a long time.
The attractive building has lay empty for years and slowly decaying. A plan to refurbish and rebuild was submitted almost three years ago. Nothing has happened. Charlton Champion looked into ownership and discovered it was bought in 2014 by Jahangir Ghani for £380,000.
The building is in such poor shape it’s a mystery as to why Greenwich Council have not issued a Section 215 notice which forces owners to improve the standard or face fines.
It was only a S215 that saw building work commence at a crumbling Plumstead High Street building after at least two decades of decline. It’s a vastly underused tool. It’s probably too late now for this building but a notice five or ten years ago it may have salvaged something.
Charlton Champion has a great overview and pics of the building including shots of cardboard placed against open grills around the base of the building.
A mystery to be sure…
This is not the first time the pub has been the victim of arsonists either. There was a complaint about people starting a fire in it on Fix My Street very recently (last week?).
Why should taxpayers foot the bill for the fire brigade to attend the building as the arsonists seemingly do a demolition job on the place?
The strategy of “Managed Decline” or “Deliberate Neglect” wasn’t effective enough in this case, so the process needed to be speeded up somehow…
There’s a similar case of this on Royal Hill, SE10: property next to the Butchers shop.
If ever there was a need to issue a S215 notice it should be for the Victoria Pub. I have watched it decline over several years. Have Greenwich Council ever tried to trace the current owner?
Greenwich Council need to act more quickly do take action of empty buildings that fall in to decline and can become dangerous and in the worse case actually start to fall down,
Do Greenwich Council employ an empty homes officer to check on empty properties and trace their owners?
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