Putney MP Tries To Save the Telegraph Pub


Site on market for £5 million and residents fear housing development

Justine Greening MP for Putney said has set up a petition for Wandsworth Borough Council to get the pub listed as an asset of Community Value. She said: "Many residents have been in touch concerned that this fantastic local establishment will be torn down and replaced with new housing due to it's prime location.   The Telegraph Pub is an important asset to the community. Set in the middle of Putney Heath, it is the only pub nearby for residents of Wildcroft Manor and Portsmouth Road, who already struggle to get good public transportation links to their area later in the evening".



The Telegraph, which closed with no notice on New Year Eve l2018, was named after Admiralty Telegraph, a shutter station which stood at the site in 1796 to convey messages between London and Portsmouth at the time of the Napoleonic Wars.


The pub is on the market for £5million, or available on a new free of tie lease for 25 years at an annual rent of £200,000. It comprises 7,800 sq ft over ground and first floors and includes owners/staff accommodation and a large beer garden.

Paul Tallentyre, Executive Director, Pubs and Bars, at the agents Davis Coffer Lyons, who is marketing the pub said, “The Telegraph public house is an iconic site that requires a makeover. There is an opportunity to create hotel rooms or increase the trading area. There is also potential for residential development subject to planning permission. Freeholds like this very really become available.”

If the building is listed as an asset of community value the freeholder will have to offer the pub for sale to the community first, before putting it on the open market. It will be necessary to show that the main use of the property can continue to meet these social objectives in the future - or in the case of a property where the use ceased in the recent past - that it could be brought back into social use within five years. Properties which have not had a social use for some years or have been empty or derelict are not covered by the Localism Act 2011.


To nominate a property as an asset of community calue there must be a constituted local community group - or if unconstituted be able to show at least 21 members registered to vote in Wandsworth or a neighbouring borough.

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August 16, 2019