A FORMER Cinderford pub with planning permission for 10 flats is coming to an online auction.

The Railway Tavern, on a corner plot in Station Street, has a freehold guide price of £240,000 to £260,000 at auctioneers Clive Emson’s February 10 sale.

The former hotel, directly opposite the station, was built at the same time by the Forest Brewery to cater for the needs of passengers and users of the railway.

When Francis Wintle’s Mitcheldean Forest Brewery put their pubs up for sale in 1923, the Railway Hotel was one of the most prestigious pubs in their tied estate. It was described as a modern stone built premises outside the Station, ’placed to command a large and independent trade.’

Passenger services were withdrawn from the station in 1958 although it remained as a goods depot until 1967. The Railway Hotel was a Whitbread pub in the 1970s and 1980s and in the late 1990s transformed to a venue called ’Trax’. But by the middle of the decade owners Punch Taverns had renamed the pub as the more traditional Railway Tavern.

Closure came in the summer of 2007 when a planning application had been submitted for change of use for conversion and extensions to 10 apartments with a mixture of one and two bedrooms.

Clive Emson senior auction appraiser Audrey Smith said: “This is a substantial detached former pub in a prominent position on a corner plot.

“The planning consent is a clear attraction for developers and builders although interested parties may have other uses for the site, subject to the necessary conditions.”

Planning permission was granted in May 2016 and works have started on the site.

Visit https://www.cliveemson.co.uk for more details.