The Blue Lion

A PUB could lose staff accommodation if redevelopment plans are given the green light by Camden Council.

The Blue Lion will have flats above the pub taken away by developers and converted for private sale or rent as part of the proposals put before the Town Hall.

It would see the kitchen moved to the ground floor, and further flats built on top of an existing lower roof at the back of the venue in Brownlow Mews, meaning seven flats in total, including one four-bedroom home and one three-bedroom home.

Assistant Manager Chloe Wynn, who currently lives upstairs in the pub said: “It is a shame and yes, it will be more difficult and I risk paying higher rents elsewhere, but there are other management jobs in pubs that include accommodation. It does make it a lot easier to come and live and work in London doing work like this when you have a flat above that comes with it.”

The independent pub in Gray’s Inn Road has been in its current location since 1824, with it being rebuilt completely in 1936 including the well known stonework facade featuring the pub’s name.

In an application from Lambournes Surveyors, it said that the pub had suffered from a drop in customers due to Covid-19 and home-working.

It added: “Whilst the intention is to retain a licensed premises on the site, the proposal seeks to rationalise and reconfigure the commercial floorspace to be more akin to likely licensed operator requirements/ demand in the current and emerging climate, and in seeking to secure a future end occupier.”

Ms Wynn, 23, said: “It’s such a lovely group of people you get in here. I only started working here a week or so ago and it already feels like I’ve been here months.”