Campaigners win battle to save historic Hackney Wick pub

East London boozer The Lord Napier Star has cemented its long-term future after successfully blocking plans for a neighbouring five-storey housing development.

The Victorian pub, which sat derelict for 26 years before undergoing a huge restoration and reopening in 2021, currently holds a hard-to-come-by late licence to play music until 01:30am on weekends.

Pub owner Rob Star had anticipated inevitable noise complaints from potential residents of the new building, fearing that even a singular complaint would force Tower Hamlets Council to revoke the pub’s vital late licence, jeopardising the business.

“Keep Hackney Wick crap and full of beer,” said pub regular and local resident Marlon Clark. “The pub is a community centre and throughout London the same thing keeps happening with complaints from new residents.”

To fight the plans, Mr Star partnered with events and media advocacy group Save Our Scene, and together they launched a grassroots campaign which saw 795 formal public objections work to block the development. Every single letter received by the council opposed the flats, and last Friday, their opposition was heard.

Objector Eucalypta Van Gelder-Bradley, who used to go to squat raves in The Napier’s building when it was abandoned during the 2000s, said: “I’m not against regeneration or new housing. London absolutely needs homes, but why should an established cultural venue have to risk changing its identity because somebody decides to build residential properties next door?”

With recent data showing that Britain is losing around one pub a day, The Napier’s most recent win offers a rare moment of hope for independent businesses in the face of rapid regeneration.

The large, three-foot letters ‘Shithouse to Penthouse,’ painted on the side of the building during a community art takeover in 2016, remain in place today. For regulars, this slogan has surely never rung truer.

301 words, The Wick, 16/10/26