New use for former Shrewsbury homeless charity building as bar expansion approved
A former homeless drop-in centre is set for a new lease of life after a change of use was approved.
Shropshire Council planners gave the go ahead to a plan by Shropshire Beers Ltd to extend the ground floor of the Tumbledown Hotel and Albion Bar at 11 Castle Foregate into the former Shrewsbury Ark building next door.
A separate licensing variation to extend the pub’s operations into the new building, outlining plans to turn the space into a breakfast room and pool area, was approved by Shropshire Council’s licensing committee in October 2023.
Meanwhile the first and second floor of the building will become extra accommodation space, adding two rooms to the hotel.
The building, which sits opposite the town’s railway station next to the former Shrewsbury Chronicle building, has been vacant since 2022 when the Shrewsbury Ark charity moved their base of operations into the former Rock and Fountain pub around a quarter of a mile away.
No public comments were received on the planning scheme despite a number of objections to the earlier licensing application, and Shrewsbury Town Council also offered no objections.
“Change of use to drinking establishment and hotel is acceptable in principle in this town centre location and adjacent to an existing public house and hotel, ” said a report by Shropshire Council’s planning case officer Jane Raymond.
“It is considered that the proposed change of use would not materially impact the amenities of existing nearby residents with regard to odour, noise and/or disturbance compared to that which might currently exist having regard to the location and existing uses in the vicinity of the site.”
A condition was added that no amplified music shall be played within the external ‘yard’ of the building in order to protect residents in properties behind the hotel.
