Could the Ship pub set sail again?

The historic South Norwood boozer shut its doors last summer after serving customers for more than 160 years.

But the developer that took over the locally-listed building and turned it into flats without permission – angering campaigners who wanted their old pub back – has now changed tack and wants to set the beer taps flowing again.

ZB Investments has asked Croydon Council to forgive its unauthorised conversions in a new planning application for five flats, plus a 162sq m pub on the ground floor and basement.

But campaigners Save the Ship say the developer is “riding roughshod” over residents’ wishes.

Organiser Rachel Lawrence said: “The old pub didn’t include the basement as it wasn’t standing height in most areas and it was a beer store.

“With the suggested plans there isn’t enough room to store beer, have customers sit down and enough people standing upstairs.

“Who is going to listen to gigs in the basement, standing up by the loos, or sit and have a drink there? No one. Also, we will lose the beer garden.”

The changes would make reviving the Ship as it was, and turning a profit, impossible because of an inability to host large events, she claimed.

Save the Ship hopes to raise £200,000 to buy the pub as a community asset.

Peter Pendleton and Associates, the agent for ZB Investments, could not be reached by phone or email yesterday.

Ehsan Amouzandeh, the former agent for the property, was surprised the new application had not been welcomed by campaigners.

He said that the new application in fact had more floor space than the previous pub, which closed last June after struggling for business.

He said: “If they [campaigners] were so interested, why did they not try to buy it before?”

Croydon Council, which launched an investigation into the planning breaches, said in July it had put a stop to “the unauthorised residential use of part of the front ground floor and basement”.