A move to add flats on the back of an historic Croydon pub has been pushed through after the planning inspectorate overturned a council decision.

The 150-year-old Sandrock pub will see a two-storey extension built at the side and back for “an enlarged service area” and four flats on the upper floors.

It will have a further 11 flats and four houses in a three-storey building at the back of the Upper Shirley Road site, along with a play space and car parking.

The plans originally submitted to Croydon Council  received more than 120 objections.

Locals have been fighting the plans since they first emerged in 2018 when the pub closed. Back then, neighbour David Percival said: “This will see a really pretty building have a bunch of tacky 1960s-like flats attached to the side of it. Any new building should resemble what’s there.” 

The council’s planning committee went against a recommendation to approve the application in March 2021 and refused it on the grounds of over-development.

Applicant Marshall Hurley Bratt Sandrock appealed the council’s decision. The appeal said: “The proposal is for the refurbishment and extension of a long vacant pub to ensure its long-term future success. It also provides 19 good quality homes of which 30 per cent are affordable.”

Last week, the decision to refuse the plans was overturned by Guy Davies, an inspector appointed by the government’s planning inspectorate.

The decision read: “I conclude the development would not harm the character or appearance of the area, including the non-designated heritage asset of the Sandrock public house, which would be retained on its prominent corner site.”

Mr Davies said the pub would be a viable business without public parking spaces.

He said: “Concern has been raised at the future viability of the public house, given that it would have no customer parking and a more limited outdoor seating area. There is no guarantee that it would be viable, but there are many public houses without parking or outdoor seating that operate effectively and therefore the absence of these facilities, by themselves, are not determinative of the future success of the business.”

According to the Layers of London website, the pub has a ghost of a preacher who stalks the bar areas.