Once known as The Hallsville Tavern the building has more recently been used as an events venue, reports Nick Clark, Local Democracy Reporter

The Glass Room pictured while it was trading (credit Google)

Plans to demolish a vacant former pub in Canning Town for a six-storey block of flats have been granted permission by Newham Council.

Property investor Adamson Investments applied for permission to demolish The Glass Room in Hallsville Road and replace it with the block of 18 flats and ground-floor commercial space.

The plans submitted to the council said the flats would replace “an infefficient use of land that makes no meaningful contribution” to the area with “much needed new housing”.

The pub was previously known as The White House, and more recently The Hallsville Tavern, but closed in 2012 before later reopening as an Indian restaurant, followed by a bar, and finally an event space called The Glass Room – but planning documents state it is now vacant.

The building is on the crossroads of Hallsville Road, Rathbone Street, Ruscoe Road and Shirley Street, opposite the new Hallsville Quarter “town centre” that is still under construction.

Councillors voted to approve the plans at a local development committee meeting on Monday, 23rd June. The council then granted formal planning permission last Friday, 29th August, after developers signed the final legal agreement setting out their contributions to infrastructure and affordable housing.

Of the flats, two of them would be let at social rent. The developer also agreed to pay the council £2,279 towards affordable housing elsewhere.

Planning officers had recommended that councillors approve the plans in June. They said the development would “provide commercial and residential uses within a designated town centre, contributing to both the borough’s housing stock and aspirations”.

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