Old Oak pub on North End Road could make way for nine flats

The Old Oak, an empty pub on North End Road beside the West Kensington Estate, could be knocked down and replaced with a six-storey block of nine flats under a planning application to Hammersmith and Fulham Council. The public consultation runs until 29 October.

The Old Oak Kensington Ltd, a company that shares the pub’s name, is behind the application. Alongside the flats, the ground floor of the new building would hold a commercial unit.

What the North End Road plan includes

Planning documents set out the mix of homes: four one-bedroom flats, four with two bedrooms and a single three-bedroom flat.

The pub sits on the stretch of North End Road heading towards West Kensington station and shut in 2024. According to the application, the building is no longer used and needs extensive work, and it has stayed empty even after “intensive marketing”. The applicant says demolishing the pub and the accommodation above it would let the site be put to more practical use as housing.

Developer SloaneGable had earlier advertised the property online, looking for a new owner for what it called a “mixed-use building” and saying it already had permission for homes to be created above. SloaneGable did not respond to a request for comment made through its website.

Boarded-up West Kensington pub

The building is now boarded up, and posters for various events have been stuck over its windows. A sign on the property suggests it has been, or may still be, lived in by property guardians, who stay in empty buildings to protect them from vandalism.