Fate of hotel still in balance
TOWN chiefs have postponed a decision on whether to allow part of an historic Ipswich hotel to be converted into a coffee shop.Ipswich Borough Council is waiting to hear comments from English Heritage before deciding on the application to turn part of the Great White Horse into a branch of coffee chain Starbucks.
TOWN chiefs have postponed a decision on whether to allow part of an historic Ipswich hotel to be converted into a coffee shop.
Ipswich Borough Council is waiting to hear comments from English Heritage before deciding on the application to turn part of the Great White Horse into a branch of coffee chain Starbucks.
The new shop, in Tavern Street, would face Costa coffee which opened on the corner of Carr Street and Upper Brook Street last month.
It would see nearly half of the ground floor converted.
A series of proposals for the Grade II listed building have been floated but the freehold remains on sale for £2 million.
The ground floor of the building is currently open as a bar but the operators only have a short-term agreement with Norwich firm Citygate Developments.
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No date has been named yet for when council planners will make a decision.
Famous former customers of the hotel include Charles Dickens, who wrote about it in Pickwick Papers, Lord Nelson and more recently Edward VIII after his abdication.
French King Louis XVIII is also believed to have stopped off for refreshments at the hotel on his way to Norwich.
