Popular York pub updates £1.9m upgrade plans – after previous proposal was rejected

A landmark York pub in an historic building has revealed its plans for a £1.9m upgrade.

Under the makeover, The Punch Bowl on Blossom Street will gain a two-storey extension to the rear.

Owner JD Wetherspoon “wants to spend £1.9m on the development and to bring more of the floor area of the building back into use as the top two floors are currently unused,” planning documents state.

YorkMix first revealed the planned changes back in 2018.

However, that planning application was rejected by City of York Council in February 2019. Planners said the extension and roof garden would damage the character and setting of the Grade II listed building.

Wetherspoon’s appealed against the decision and lost.

The new application “is substantially the same” as previously submitted. Plans include “an enlarged customer area on the ground-floor, enhanced external customer areas including a first-floor roof terrace”.

The 1970 single storey extension behind the main pub, which dates from 1835, would be demolished to make way for the modern two-storey extension. Better toilets and a bigger kitchen also form part of the proposals.

According to the new documents, a planning inspector backed the council’s rejection of the previous application mainly due to the impact of the development on a neighbouring flat on the third floor of Old Priory Court building.

The noise nuisance from the roof terrace would be unacceptable, the inspector found.

The new application says that extra screening measures – including free-standing planters – would ensure no increase in noise for residents of the flat.

Wetherspoon’s say the expansion will bring economic benefits, including employing another 10-15 more part-time staff.

And it “will help to ensure the continued viability of the community facility as a public house, which, given its historic use and association for such purpose, represents the optimum viable use for the heritage asset”.

You can read and comment on the planning application here.