Proposal:
Proposal number 24/01650/FUL. Installation of a pizza oven and flue. (amended plans)
The White House, 38 Abingdon Road, Oxford, Oxfordshire, OX1 4PD
Our Response:
OPT supports the introduction of a pizza oven, and appreciates that this is a core aspect of the business model used by the applicant for a number of their public houses and critical to their viability. The addition of an external flue to a historic building is however regrettable. The trust notes the number of extant chimneys on the historic building, and suggest that the use of one of these to house the flue for the pizza oven would be more appropriate and limit the impact on the buildings historically significant external envelope.
Though not an aspect regarding this application, OPT would also like to voice their disapproval over the name change from ‘The White House’ to ‘The Slow and Steady.’ The establishments name has a vast social and historic significance, represented by its reference in the surrounding road network. The presence of a ‘White House Pub’ has been a constant for the area since before the 38 Abingdon Road site, dating back to a prior ‘White House Pub’ located nearby and cited in an 1878 Ordinance Survey map of the area. Altering the name of the establishment will significantly harm the community significance of the site, and social heritage of the wider area.