The Walpole to become a hotel [UPDATED]

New Cross Road pub The Walpole is closed - seemingly permanently - and will be converted in to a 60-bed hotel. The landlord thought he'd fought-off the threat of conversion but the doors are now locked and the former owners breezily admit they cashed in - AG&G say:

New Cross takes its name from a coaching inn that once provided accommodation for weary travellers, so it’s entirely appropriate that the site of the Walpole pub in New Cross Road is now set to become a 60-bed hotel – the only one in the SE14 postcode.

It was sold off a guide price of £2.25 million by AG&G’s Anthony Alder, to a Middle Eastern investment company.

The pub is an attractive, flat-fronted Victorian building that comes with a beer garden, letting rooms and two neighbouring shops but it was sold with planning permission for a new hotel.

“There’s such strong demand for large plots in central London and it’s close to the terminus of the East London line, near up-and-coming Stratford and with that precious permission, so the potential was clear,” says Anthony.

The pub had a slightly chaotic recent history but was nonetheless a decent alternative to the Amersham Arms  or the Marquis of Granby.

Thanks to those on the New Cross forum who highlighted the story.

UPDATE: Courtesy of BC readers, here are the before (top) and after (bottom) elevations from the planning documents for the proposed hotel: