Buckinghamshire Council has approved plans to turn The White Horse pub in High Wycombe into multiple occupation housing.

Streamdown Properties Ltd, the owner of the building formerly known as the infamous lap dancing pub The White Horse on West Wycombe Road, was granted permission to change it into a 13-bedroom housing block today, Wednesday, March 6.

In the decision notice, a planning officer said a parking scheme should be laid out before development begins, including one electric vehicle charging point to comply with the Air Quality Management Area and offset carbon emissions from the work.

They also stipulated that a scheme to protect future tenants from traffic noise on West Wycombe Road be put in place before anyone moves into the building, with drainage repair works required in a similar timeframe.

A bird or bat box on the side of the building will also be a requirement of the former pub’s re-designation, to “increase biodiversity opportunities” in line with the Wycombe District Local Plan of 2019.

A similar change of use for the site was permitted back in 2020, although two subsequent applications to demolish it and build a three-storey block of flats in its place were rejected after the 100-year-old building was added to the Buckinghamshire Local Heritage List in 2023. 

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The newly approved plans include minimal alterations to the external building which a planning officer said would “not adversely affect” the heritage of the former pub or change its “contribution to the wider area”.   

Objections to the 2020 planning proposal raised concerns about an overconcentration of houses of multiple occupation (HMOs) in the area, but a document containing the council’s now-expired verdict states that there is “no policy to limit the number of HMOs within an area” and judged the “principle of development” to be acceptable.

Pubgoers were invited to bid a final farewell to The White Horse, which was well-known in Wycombe for its lap-dancing nights and history of big-name music performances, on December 30, 2023.

Alastair Watts, 78, who ran the pub for 20 years before retiring last year, said it had become financially unviable to keep The White Horse going, citing his age and “endless maintenance problems” in the building for his decision to step back from the helm.

Punters having a final pint at their local before its doors closed for good told the Free Press they would remember it as a “friendly place” with an “unfair image”.