Residents discuss the future of a historic fire-damaged pub in Stoke-on-Trent
Residents gathered at the Burslem School of Art today (24 April) to discuss the potential uses of a historic fire-damaged pub as part of a viability study into its future.
Middleport Pottery owner Re-Form Heritage is exploring options for The Leopard in Burslem, which suffered serious damage in a blaze in January 2022.
The public meeting, of around two dozen people from around Stoke-on-Trent and beyond, led to a lively discussion about how people would like to see the project move forward and how the building may be able to improve the community facilities in the town.
The viability study now taking place is to allow the pub's owners, Daneets Developments, to determine whether to restore the building in partnership with another organisation or transfer ownership to an appropriate regeneration lead.
Zoe Sutherland of Re-Form Heritage said: "I'm really interested to hear how people are feeling about the lack of a space for the community to come together in Burslem - that's something that I perhaps hadn't fully appreciated before this meeting.
"But I think people are also quite alive to the challenges.
"The viability study is about understanding the building, what condition it's in, what the significance is and what makes it special.
"We're listening to what the community feel they really need in Burslem and what they want to retain in the building and incorporating that into a range of options which we could start to have a look at about what might be workable and what might not be workable for the building."
Some at the meeting were sceptical that the building could thrive as a pub once again and suggested that it should become a community or meeting venue. There was also discussion about the rear of the building being renovated to become residential accommodation.
Other discussions centred around how the building could be restored to increase tourism in the town.
Pointed out various times was the connection The Leopard has to the town's identity, history and to the community.
Zoe added: "These discussions are opening up further conversations but then at the same time it is a decision-making tool for ourselves."
Re-Form Heritage was chosen as the city's Heritage Development Trust in 2023 via a national Architectural Heritage Fund and National Lottery Heritage Fund programme.
The Grade II-listed Market Place landmark was the meeting place of Josiah Wedgwood and James Brindley where they discussed building the Trent and Mersey Canal in 1765, and features in many of Arnold Bennett's novels as The Tiger.
Annette Francis, who spoke at the meeting, was born in Burslem and was part of the Our Burslem community group, helping put on events in the town.
She said: "I was brought up here and fell in love with the buildings and it's just very sad to see what's happened.
"A lot of history groups such as the Arnold Bennett Society and the Burslem history group used to use the building and I think it is missed as a pub as well.
"I'd like to see the front of the building become a pub again and some historic or museum element, for it to tell the story of Josiah Wedgwood and James Brindley and as a venue that can be used for placemaking."
The viability study will also involve a desk-based assessment of the site's archaeological potential, as it sits on top of one of Josiah Wedgwood's early potbanks, known as Brick House Works or Bell Works.
It was here that Wedgwood perfected creamware, which he supplied to Queen Charlotte from the works.
Andy Perkin, from the Potteries Heritage Society, said: "The building is right at the heart of this community, so somewhere that has the capacity to be a meeting point would be good as we have lost that here.
"Part of the point is how The Leopard contributes to placemaking, what it gives and what it means to us.
"We should be concentrating on the idea of a meeting space with some hospitality because we have lost that, we've lost that at the School of Art and the town hall, because we are excluded from there by the tenants who now occupy the buildings.
"That isn't their fault, it is a way of funding the building, but it has removed a community facility."
If you could not attend Re-Form Heritage's drop-in community engagement event at Burslem School of Art, you can share your views online by using the link here.
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READ: Nearly £4.5m government funding set for 34 projects to improve Stoke-on-Trent
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