PART OF a former Hyde pub could be converted into a four-bedroomed house in multiple occupation (HMO) and a self-contained flat if planners approve a new application.
Bar staff at the Owd Joss, on Market Street, pulled their last pint in March 2024 with developers quick to move on to the site.
Work to turn the ground floor of the building into three shops is already underway after officials granted permission for a change of use in March this year.
This new scheme would keep much of the footprint of the upstairs three-bedroomed landlord’s flat, albeit with the former living room being turned into an extra en-suite bedroom.
Two would need to share a toilet and shower, while blueprints propose that a former storage area will become a communal kitchen.
However, there do not appear to be any other shared dining or social facilities in the plans.
The self-contained one-bed flat, meanwhile, would be created by refashioning an existing kitchen, hallway and bathroom.
Writing in his report at the time of approving the conversion of the ground floor into shops, Tameside Council’s director of place Julian Jackson said: “However regrettable the loss of the public house may be, the new uses that is proposed be introduced are appropriate in the town centre location and would secure a beneficial use for a building that is a long-established feature in the street scene.
“Without leading to any undue loss of amenity in the surrounding area the proposal represents an efficient use of an existing building and would also encourage its future maintenance in a fairly prominent location.”
A separate application submitted at the same time by the developer, Muhammad Kamran Tufail, has requested the ground floor windows be widened to “create a suitable shopfront”.
Built in the 1830s, the pub was originally called the Cotton Tree but was known in recent years as Last Orders and the Beer Engine before its final incarnation as Owd Joss.