Proposal:
proposal number 24/01145/LBC. Alterations to ground floor kitchen to include the removal of chimney breast and insertion of steel beam. Installation of pizza oven and associated flue, to terminate through the roof. Redecoration of external render and fenestration.
The White House 38 Abingdon Road Oxford Oxfordshire OX1 4PD
Our Response:
Oxford Preservation Trust (‘OPT’) welcome the opportunity to review and submit comments on the above planning application for works at The White House public house, 38 Abingdon Road.
OPT have no objections to the proposed works related to the installation of the proposed pizza oven, however we do object to the proposed repainting of the external elevations to black.
The existing building sits on a prominent site on the Abingdon Road, close to Folly Bridge, the principle route into the city when travelling from the South.
The significance of the site, as conceded in the design and access statement, is derived largely from its aesthetic and historic value. The external envelope of the public house is its most striking feature, with its white facade predating its current iteration to the earlier Old White House. This earlier pub called the Old White House stood on a site just to the west of the current public house. The building's historic and community value has been engrained into the urban fabric of the area with Whitehouse Road named after the continuous presence of a public house in this area. It is the belief of the Trust that changing the external appearance of the White House so drastically would significantly harm the heritage significance of the site, subtracting from the visual contribution it makes to the street scene and ignoring the rich local history.