The Unicorn pub has been closed for five years

GIGS downstairs, peaceful family life upstairs – that’s the aim of an engineering project being reviewed by planning officers for a legendary rock’n’roll pub.

The Unicorn pub, on the corner of Camden Road and Brecknock Road, closed amid the coronavirus crisis in 2020 and has stood unused since.

But now it could be set for a grand re-opening as its owners say they have cracked the ultimate conundrum facing pubs and clubs: how to play full volume shows when residents are living on the other side of a wall.

Originally dating from 1830, the bar had been refurbished in 2017 and was a landmark venue on Camden Town’s rock and metal circuit.

It was famous for a strictly no covers music policy and the plug would be pulled on musicians not considered original.

The Libertines are among the well known bands who played there on the way up the fame ladder, but it was also known for hosting cult metal bands who loved to turn the volume up to 11.

Now architects have lodged details of how they will ensure the plans, which also include a new shop on the ground floor, will protect those living upstairs.

Acoustic specialists have designed a false ceiling which will then be filled with noise-muffling insulation.

They say it would be thick enough to soak up both high and low frequencies from the basement’s sound system and easily tackle pub chit-chat from punters on the ground floor.

Originally called the Brecknock Arms, its first publican, James Stone, leased land behind the pub from Lord Pratt, The Earl of Camden.

Stone built a mile-long horse racing circuit and also advertised “Cornwall and Devonshire Wrestling” bouts in the pub’s gardens to attract custom.

More recently the loss of The Unicorn has been felt on the music scene.

Members of the band that would become Iron Maiden performed there in the 1970s, while Carl Barat and Pete Doherty from The Libertines would jump on stage, when they lived a stone’s throw from the venue as in the 1990s.

In their original application, owners Warwick Classic Cars – a car firm based in Camden Town who bought the pub – said “The proposal is to restore a highly visible local historic building and re-establish uses to the benefit of both the local and wider communities.”