Supporters of the Magdala pub want the function room restored

HAMPSTEAD came out in force to “save the Magdala” pub ahead of a crunch planning meeting at the Town Hall tonight (Thursday).

Councillors on the planning committee are being asked to approve an application from the South Hill Park building’s owner to convert the upstairs function room into a flat. The works have already taken place despite permission being refused back in 2019.

Owner Ori Calif is hoping to get the green light to keep the flat – and the planning committee have been told by officers he should be allowed to do so. But the case has caused uproar among regulars of the pub and with the Hampstead Neighbourhood Forum (HNF), who say approval would set a dangerous precedent.

HNF chair Stephen Taylor said: “It has been a pub for over 100 years and it is registered as an Asset of Community Value – so Camden recognises that we have a stake in the building and it is not for the owners to do with as they please. And our community interest is being stripped away floor by floor, and this is just the latest step in the owner’s plans.”

The Magdala operated as a pub from 1870 to 2013. It gained notoriety when Ruth Ellis became the last woman to be hanged in England in 1955 after she shot her boyfriend David Blakeley outside the pub. She was given a posthumous pardon last month.

The planning row over the pub has now dragged on for 12 years. In 2014, Camden gave permission for two floors to be converted on the understanding the pub would remain open, only for it to be closed in 2015. It reopened in 2021, with the function room entrance blocked off in 2023.

Mr Calif’s property company was behind the shock demolition of the Carlton Tavern in Kilburn without planning permission – a move that led to Westminster Council forcing it to be rebuilt brick by brick. The HNF want Camden to show the same determination to protect the Magdala.

Stephen Taylor at the Magdala

Mr Taylor said: “The council cannot allow them to get away with this. If this is given the go-ahead it sets an awful precedent that endangers every community resource in Camden. The 2019 application was turned down on three different grounds and officers are saying they no longer apply. It matters because the function room is a community space in an area where there is no other available.”

The owners of the Magdala did not respond to requests for comment, but council officers have recommended the retrospective planning permission be granted.

In the application, officers state the flat has been lived in since 2023 and that the owners followed the procedures under the Asset of Community Value laws to offer the space to interested community groups.

The council officers’ report said: “The public house has continued to operate viably since re-opening after the pandemic in 2021 and the loss of the first-floor function room and store room have not and are not considered a threat to the viability. As such, it is not considered that there are grounds for refusing the application.”