A row has erupted after a businessman built a ‘gaudy’ Indian gastro pub next door to the childhood home of William Shakespeare’s wife Anne Hathaway without planning permission.
Rakesh Singh opened ‘The Cask n Tandoor’ inside the grounds of his four star £265-a-night Burnside Hotel, in the affluent village of Shottery, Warkwickshire, in March.
The restaurant is less than 700ft from the Grade II-listed cottage, where the famous playwright’s wife was born in 1556, and is situated inside a conservation area.
The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, who manage the cottage, complained the pub building, which includes an outdoor drinking terrace, had encroached over their boundary.
They strongly opposed a retrospective planning application submitted to Stratford-upon-Avon District Council in August, saying the pub ‘does not respect the character of the conservation area’ and was ‘yet another attempt’ by Mr Singh, who has applied multiple times to change buildings in the hotel grounds, to ‘overdevelop’ the site.
Locals have also rallied against the development, which they say has destroyed wildlife in the pretty Shottery brook, and is causing a light and noise nuisance, with ‘football matches blaring’ late at night.
Yesterday it emerged that Mr Singh, 56, could now be forced to demolish the pub, after councillors voted to reject the retrospective application. In a damning decision a fortnight ago (Dec 16) they agreed the pub failed to ‘enhance the character’ of the area and was causing ‘harm’ to the historic 500-year-old cottage next door.
Residents have now called on the council to throw the book at the company director, who they accused of a ‘brazen disregard of planning laws and a casual disrespect for wildlife.’
‘It’s been very upsetting to watch the destruction of nature with all this building debris appearing in the brook,’ one said. ‘Quite simply the building should be torn down.
Aerial views of the site of Indian gastro pub The Cask N Tandoor which was illegally built in Shottery, Warwickshire
Rakesh Singh opened The Cask N Tandoor inside the grounds of his four star £265-a-night hotel
Anne Hathaway’s childhood cottage which is managed by the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust
The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, which manages Anne Hathaway’s cottage, complained the large building was intruding onto their land which is a protected Conservation Area.
The Indian gastro pub, which lies just 188m (618ft) from Anne Hathaway’s cottage, was built without proper planning permission.
‘During the summer we could hear the football blaring out across the woodland from the pub. Mr Singh continues to ignore the fact that it’s a conservation area.
‘I hope the district council do the right thing and enforce the demolition of this gaudy monstrosity.’
Another resident in Church Lane, where average property prices top £500,000, said: ‘This is simply not the appropriate place to have a loud sports bar and Indian restaurant.
‘Thousands of tourists visit Anne Hathaway’s cottage every year and shouldn’t be exposed to this kind of establishment.
‘I just hope the council throw the book at him [Mr Singh] otherwise other landowners may feel emboldened to ride rough shod over the planning rules too.’
Mr Singh, who plans to appeal, originally got planning permission to replace a timber shed with two extra en-suite bedrooms for the hotel and a plant room in December 2020.
But he ran into trouble when he doubled the size of the development, with the addition of the gastro pub and large outdoor wooden terrace earlier this year.
Outlining the decision to refuse the planning application, John Careford, the council’s head of development, said they had identified six major issues with the new building, including a failure to ‘preserve or enhance the character and appearance of the conservation area’ and the neighbouring Anne Hathaway’s cottage, which would be subjected to ‘less than substantial harm.’
A portrait of playwright and poet William Shakespeare, who was born in 1564 and died in 1616
The wife of William Shakespeare, Anne Hathaway (pictured) who married the playwright in 1582 when she was 26-years-old and he was 18-years-old
The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, who manage the cottage, complained the pub building, which includes an outdoor drinking terrace, had encroached over their boundary
Locals have rallied against the development, which they say has destroyed wildlife in the pretty Shottery brook, and is causing a light and noise nuisance
The two buildings are situated right next to each other, which has caused residents to say it should be ‘torn down’
Plans from refused application which Mr Singh submitted to build a bar/lounge and plant room
Plans which which granted Mr Singh permission to replace a shed with two extra en suite bedrooms
Nearby properties could also be detrimentally affected by additional noise and lighting from the pub, on top of the impact the development could have on the brook, it’s wildlife, flooding risks and the local landscape, the council said.
A spokesperson for the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust said: ‘The works have overdeveloped the site in contravention of local planning policy, the existing restrictive covenant and does not respect the amenity of the surrounding properties, including Anne Hathaway’s Cottage.’
Stansgate Planning, working on behalf of Mr Singh, said: ‘We are currently reviewing the reasons for refusal and all the consultation comments with a view to either submitting another planning application or appealing against the decision.’
Stratford District Council refused to comment, saying the application was still being treated as ‘live.’
Anne Hathaway is believed to have lived in the thatched, timber-framed farmhouse, which consists of just three rooms – a kitchen, parlour and hall – until her marriage to Shakespeare in 1582. Generations of her family continued to live in the property, even after it was acquired by the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust in 1892, until her final descendant, William Baker left in 1911.
