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York pub is back up for sale, six months after it was due to be demolished

Inside the Magnet as it is now. Photograph: Sale documents

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It is the pub that refuses to die.

Developers have twice applied for permission to demolish The Magnet on Osbaldwick Lane, York – the last time in June 2019 – saying it was not viable as a pub.

But the large venue is back up for sale, marketed by Barry Crux.

One of those campaigning to keep the Magnet as a pub is independent Osbaldwick councillor Mark Warters.

Together with York CAMRA (Campaign for Real Ale) he is forwarding the details to interested parties. Cllr Warters thinks, given the size of the pub, it would be a good location for a micro-brewery.

The Magnet – timeline

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  • April 2018 – then owners Enterprise Inns close the Magnet after the retirement of the landlord who had run it for 36 years
  • September 2018 – YorkMix reports concerns that it will be torn down after demolition specialists seen at the venue
  • January 2019 – Moorside Developments apply to knock down the pub in order to build nine terraced houses on the site
  • February 2019 – York Civic Trust and Osbaldwick Parish Council join many others in campaigning to save the Magnet
  • February 2019 – the application is withdrawn
  • June 2019 – a new application to demolish the pub and replace it with eight houses is lodged with City of York Council
  • December 2019 – the pub is back up for sale

Demolition ‘not an option’

Another image from the sales document
Sale particulars for the Magnet Hotel describe it as a “closed public house in a heavily-populated suburb of York”.

The commercial rooms comprise of a public bar, snug, lounge bar and catering kitchen. There’s a large maisonette on the upper floors.

Cllr Warters hopes a buyer can be found. In a submission to the planning application he says the site has been deliberately left to rot to discourage people from buying the pub:

  • The current limiting factor in any viable offer coming forward from interested third parties is the extra value placed on the site for housing development – and the cynical running down of the structure of the public house by allowing water ingress into the interior, the digging up of the front car park and allowing the whole site to take in a run-down appearance.

    Anecdotal evidence of viability should not be accepted as a substitute for the required viability assessment.

He said demolition “should not be an option”.