Shape the future of the Royal Oak site – and tell your memories of the much-loved pub

More news from those behind the development of the Royal Oak public house site in North Woolwich – and now they want your help with the future of the project.

They also want to hear your memories of the famous pub to help preserve them for future generations.

The site is being developed by a small family-run property development business, Arbery Properties, of East London, and spokesman Karun Chhokar revealed this week that all groundworks are completed onsite.

He said: “We are cracking on with the building structure now. We rebuilt the basement and made it deeper and wider so it can be used as a habitable space instead of only being a wet cellar.

“We’ve also been working with Newham Council, the Royal Docks Team and local partners to establish a sustainable future use at the Royal Oak across ground-floor and basement.”

He added: “On a high level, it will be repositioned as a flexible community co-working space with a primary focus on young people and digital entrepreneurship, but also for local residents to use during the day, evenings and weekends as a hub for meetings, book clubs, creative arts and suchlike.”

Karun said: “Most importantly, the ground-floor will be reinstated as a public house in terms of design and fit out, with bar and seating, and the exterior Truman’s tiling is going to be restored by a firm called Restore London. Our longer term aim is to turn the Royal Oak back into a community pub. However this is something that is still in the pipeline as we need to figure out how this would be run sustainably.”

There are flats being built but there will also be a flexible community working space.

• Work progressing at the Royal Oak site. Picture:David Conroy

The developers have thanked local people for their input but now want to hear from locals about their memories of the pub so they can be used inside and also to hear what you think the building’s base could be used for.

Said Karun: “We want the development to be a great hub for their community. And we would love to hear what local people see is important for them.

“We also want to preserve the heritage of the place, so those memories are important.”

• The Royal Oak in the 50s

This article will be shared on my own Facebook page, and the Facebook and Twitter pages of the Heritage Newham – People, Places and Progress group.

On Facebook, there’s a choice of pages to comment on which I will be sharing on: Silvertown and North Woolwich, Past Present and Future, My Royal Docks, I grew up in North Woolwich/Silvertown, We Still Love Silvertown and We’re Staying Put.

Thank you.