The Cock Tavern

• DRINKERS at The Cock Tavern, Somers Town, are bewildered by what they read about the pub’s upstairs function room’s missing fire escape route and, for that reason, the function room will have to be converted into a private flat, (Don’t blame us for pub planning row, say Cock Tavern’s neighbours, May 20).

Patrons remember the escape corridor from the function room to the domestic stairs leading to the front door onto the Chalton Street pavement.

A minor search in the Camden planning files reveals indeed the existence of such an escape corridor from day one of the pub’s creation in 1931 up to 2017/18 when the domestic part of the building was converted into self-contained flats on the first floor, the second and under the roof by the new investment owner.

Has the Camden planning case officer failed to understand the simple set of drawings submitted to them which show the corridor to be blocked to the function room and be incorporated to the floor space of a newly-created flat adjacent to the function room?

A case of short-memory use by the owner in his explanation for the reason of the inevitable loss of the function room?

The pub’s future is to be underpinned by an urgent meeting with the owner, the council’s planning and property office, and the community which values the pub and the function room and understands the transgressions / remedies in flank wall abuse onto land not demised to the property and… property law.

HERMAN TRIBELNIG
Camden Town Urban Design Improvement Society