Cliviger pub bids for home conversion after financial woes
The future of a long-established Cliviger pub has been thrown into doubt after plans were submitted to convert the building into a family home.
An application lodged with Burnley Council seeks permission to turn the Queen Hotel on Burnley Road, Holme Chapel, from a public house with living accommodation above into a three-bedroom house.
The proposal relates to the stone-built property at 412 Burnley Road, which currently comprises a pub at ground-floor level with a two-bedroom flat above. Under the plans, the building would be converted into a single three-bedroom dwelling.
Planning documents state that the pub is no longer commercially viable and has been marketed for sale for more than five years without attracting a buyer, potentially signalling the end of a decades-old parish institution.
According to the supporting planning statement, agents were instructed to begin marketing the business on June 9, 2021, with the property remaining on the market until June 15, 2026.
During that period only two viewings took place and no offers were received, despite reductions in the asking price.
The applicant argues that changing habits within the hospitality industry and the economic challenges facing smaller pubs have made the business unsustainable.
Planning consultants acting for the scheme also point to the continued presence of the nearby Ram Inn, around 100 metres away, arguing that residents would retain access to a public house within the village if the Queen Hotel were lost.
The Stonegate-owned Ram Inn has itself faced difficulties in recent years, with its landlords walking out in 2025 after high booze prices caused a knock-on decline in trade.
But then in August of this year, the pub secured planning permission to have an expanded covered outside area with its own bar. Which could come in use if its the only drinking establishment left in the village.
If the conversion of the Queen Hotel is approved, it would involve relatively modest alterations. Existing pub signage would be removed, a rear extension demolished, and new sliding doors installed to create access to a private garden area.
Internally, the former licensed premises would be remodelled to provide a lounge, kitchen-diner, utility room and toilet on the ground floor, with three bedrooms and a family bathroom upstairs.
The Queen Hotel has long been a fixture of village life in Holme Chapel. Historic pub listings describe it as a landmark roadside free house in the Cliviger Gorge on the A671 between Burnley and Todmorden.
The pub is known for serving real ale, hosting quiz nights and community events, and pub guides also show the establishment has operated for many decades, having previously been a tied house owned by the former Samuel Webster’s Brewery, before later trading as an independent free house.
Burnley Council will decide the application to convert the pub at a later date.