The historic public house The Thomas Farley is no longer a pub.

A planning application has been approved to turn the historic pub on Thornton Heath High Street in to a parent assessment centre.

When the hoardings covering the windows came off for building work to start it sparked speculation that it was reopening as a pub.

The Thomas Farley Public House was sold off  to Iconic Properties Ltd  which is turn part of the Golfrate Property group, based in Wimbledon and owned by an Isle of Man Trust. 

The former pub has already been carved up in to a 10 bed HMO with seven flats and was given permission for change of use for A3/A4 to to D1 by officers under delegated powers.

The pub was locally listed by the council because of its history and character but this afforded it no protection. 

The Farley has sat empty since being purchased in July 2016 by Iconic, despite interest from trendy pub chain Antic. In 2017  a planning application was approved for continued use of the ground and lower ground floors as pub and social hall and conversion of the upper floors for flats – indicating the pub was likely to reopen soon. The pub didn’t reopen but the upper floors were converted in to seven flats with the rear of the building recently receiving retrospective approval for the retention of a 10 bed HMO using the billiards room. The high spec one bedroom flats with views of the Job Centre are being marketed for rent at £1,100 (pictured left).