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Camden News - by CHARLOTTE CHAMBERS
Published: 9 October 2008

Hawley Arms undergoing restoration

Pub beats flames and red tape

Halloween reopening for celebrity hang-out caught up in planning dispute

IT has survived Amy Winehouse’s hell-raising and the drinking marathons of Pete Doherty, but for the past eight months the Hawley Arms has been out of the rock’n’roll running because of a dramatic blaze and a bit of bureaucratic red tape.
Landlords at the Castlehaven Road pub – a mecca for celebrities and trend-setters which was gutted in the Camden Market fire in February – announced yesterday (Wednesday) that it will reopen on Halloween night, October 31.
They hope it will be the last chapter in a long battle with Town Hall planners, who quibbled over renovation plans.
Ruth Mottram, one third of the successful trio running the Hawley, said: “We just wanted to have our pub back. We were hitting a brick wall and we got to the stage where we thought if we carry on we won’t open until next year. We put in a massive compromise but we’re really happy to get it open. We’re really excited.”
The Hawley owners had to scrap plans to put a staircase at the back of the building. The pub will now have a staircase to the side and a fire escape on the first floor.
“In terms of the compromise, we’re losing a big amount of space on the first floor,” said Ms Mottram. The landlords had hoped by putting the stairway at the back they could increase the size of the roof terrace. It was never clear why Camden Council refused their application, said Ms Mottram.
She insists that – staircase aside – drinkers will not be disappointed by the reopened pub.
“We’re trying to bring it back to how it was, so people walk in and feel like it hasn’t been gone,” she added.

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