The Unicorn housing development at the former pub site in Stowmarket.

ONCE it was a place for people to come and meet, but now a former pub could be your new home.

The Unicorn in Lime Tree Place, Stowmarket, has been redeveloped into four properties with a further three built to the rear.

Developer Gipping Homes purchased the pub in 2010 and completed the work last month.

Managing director Peter Blemings said: “It’s an old building, part of historic Stowmarket. It would have been cheaper to demolish but we have preserved the building.

“The old toilet block in the back of the pub is now an open plan living room with high ceilings and beams – we have preserved all of the old features. A lot of the rooms are not square but it goes with living in an old building.”

Some local residents set up a group opposing the development plan for the pub in 2010 as there were concerns it would be knocked down.

But the pub’s building was retained and offers one, two and three-bedroom homes.

The three new terrace homes in the pub’s former car park consist of a pair of two-bed houses and an additional two-bed chalet type building.

According to the book Stowmarket, Combs and Stowupland Pubs by Neil Langridge and Brian A Southgate, The Unicorn was built as a bakehouse in 1860. After spending years as a beerhouse, the pub was eventually sold to Greene King for £3,500 in 1897.