Lord Rookwood Pub | Roger Mears Architects

Saving a derelict Pub in East London

The Lord Rookwood public house (now Rookwood Village) is an attractive mock-Tudor building dating from 1893. The building ceased operating as a public house in late 2012/early 2013 and has been derelict since. The site comprises of the pub and its garden, as well as the adjoining dilapidated garages. Some internal works were carried out in 2014, which were not done in a sympathetic fashion and were subject to enforcement action. Some early development proposals were also unsympathetic and failed to gain planning permission.

The current owner purchased the property with the aim of bringing this disused pub back into use. We successfully gained planning permission for a proposal to reinstate the lawful use of the site as a Public House at ground floor level and associated garden, to convert the existing basement into a Music Venue with some ancillary storage for the pub, and to provide residential facilities on the upper floors. The derelict garages are redeveloped to a housing block with their own amenity area, to serve as enabling development for the pub. This project has recently been completed and the pub had opened doors to the public finally after decades of decline.