Should be an easy build , just use some of the new build brickies .
They gotta rebuild it...
....let's see if it actually happens
BBC News - Crooked House owners ordered to rebuild
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-englan...shire-68414524
Should be an easy build , just use some of the new build brickies .
Really hope that it does happen, although I still think it a pity that it could not have been rebuilt at the BCM which would have perhaps better ensured it's continued survival. It could still have operated as a pub there and would have given more visitors the opportunity to experience it's unique qualities. To rebuild it in situ may be historically important but what happens once it's re-built? Who takes it over or maintains it? It would be nice to see it become a popular and successful pub again but that won't be easy to achieve.
Just imagine putting on your CV that you built a crooked house.. to not ever get hired again.
The enforcement requires the landowner to….’reinstate the building to it’s former dimensions and style as a public house so as to recreate it as similar as possible to the demolished building as it stood prior to the start of the development”.
The matter of whether demolition actually constitutes ‘development’ requiring planning permission is something of a grey area but the council feel confident that it does here.
What I think is certain is that it will be appealed and then go to public inquiry. I would then think it,likely that the landowner will then engage a specialist planning barrister who is hot on the subject to go through it all in the minutest detail. I certainly would not relish being the planning witness being cross examined by some smart ar5ed barrister.
I think somehow recreating the building in the BCM is not a bad idea.
I grew up in Gornal Wood so as a child the Crooked House was only a short bicycle ride away. I was saddened to hear of its destruction. However, it was located at the end of a windy, narrow road next to an old quarry in the middle of nowhere with not much else around it. Maybe that's changed since then but I would still much prefer to see it rebuilt at somewhere like the Black Country Museum where it can be seen and appreciated by many more people. That would seem like a win-win for everyone involved - the public gets easier access to a truly remarkable old building that is symbolic of the Black Country and its coal mining history, and the landowner gets to do what it wants with the land without having to figure out what to do with a building it so obviously didn't want in the first place. If its got to be rebuilt anyway, then why not?
The rebuild will never happen. The ‘pub’ is owned by ATE Farms Ltd, I will be astounded if that company does not declare bankruptcy, administration, or whatever and avoid having to do the rebuild. The Black Country Museum would be the ideal place for it and should they want it, the owners should be fined for their actions and the money given to the museum. My expectation, though, is that it will never be rebuilt and the owners will never pay a penny.