Plan for flats behind Reading town centre pub revised

A development company called Hamble Residential is hoping to knock down a modest former office building and replace it with flats.

The existing building, 10 Eaton Place, is a two-storey vacant office building which appears to have been unoccupied for some time.

It was previously occupied by Reading Community Learning Centre, which long since moved to its current offices in London Street.

The plan to replace the offices with flats first emerged in 2021, with Hamble Residential initially applying to build an eight-storey building containing 27 apartments.

What 10 Eaton Place, Reading looks like currently. It was previously used as offices. Credit: Anomaly

But this year, revised and reduced plans for the site have been submitted.

Hamble Residential is now seeking to construct a part four, part five-storey apartment building containing 15 flats.

These would be made up of eight two-bed, three one-bed and four three-bed apartments, with all of the three-beds being affordable.

The development company’s planning agents Iceni state that the revisions maximise the site’s potential, maintain ‘successful’ residential layouts for future occupants and provide ‘a high-quality architectural design’ that ‘complements neighbouring buildings and future developments’.

You can view the application by typing reference 201104 into the council’s planning portal.

If approved, the replacement building would sit within an area of substantial development.

READ MORE: Plan for 54 sustainable flats near Reading town centre pub given go ahead

The council approved the replacement of 115 Chatham Street with a new five-storey building containing 54  apartments in December 2021, and 114 Oxford Road, the old Richer Sounds building, has already been replaced with 16 apartments.

Meanwhile, a plan has also been submitted to replace the three-storey Eaton Court offices with 120 flats.

An area of substantial development: 10 Eaton Place, Reading, number 1, amongst other buildings where plans have been submitted and approved. Credit: Anomaly

The plan for 10 Eaton Place has been opposed by planning agents appointed by The Butler pub called Urbanissta, who stated that the pub site will ‘imminently’ be subject to a plan for redevelopment.

While no application for what will happen to The Butler has been submitted yet, Urbanissta’s founder and director Jo Hanslip argued that the 10 Eaton Place project should not be discussed until the council has had the ability to assess the compatibility of the two schemes in combination.

Furthermore, she argued that the proposed flats would hinder The Butler’s ability to operate as a live music venue, and that the amenity of future occupants would be impacted by that activity.

READ MORE: Plan to demolish former Job Centre offices in Oxford Road and build more than 100 flats

A plan by Steven Stanton, the owner of the pub, to convert outbuildings and a nearby tyre fitting business into 14 hotel rooms was approved in 2019, but does not appear to have been implemented. 

There are no references to hotel rooms being available on the pub’s external branding.

It currently closes at 1am on Fridays and Saturdays, 12am on Thursdays and 11pm from Sunday to Wednesday.

The pub is also Grade II listed due to it dating back to 1830 and having a unique frontage.