THE NEW owners of a historic pub and hotel that was closed for two years say it’s hardly worth making rooms available to guests again, given the huge cost of making them fire safety compliant.

Fire safety inspectors imposed a prohibition notice on The Crown in Whitchurch last month, preventing the Grade II-listed 16th Century building being used for ‘sleeping and or resting’.

“There is no working fire alarm to alert people in the event of fire,” their report said, while the means of escape from sleeping areas was not suitable or sufficient.

The prohibition notice is still listed as in force on the National Fire Chiefs Council Enforcement Register.

But owner Theresa Gwillim, on whom the notice was served, said this had arisen from a risk assessment carried out there in advance of potentially bringing the rooms back into use.

“We are a new business, just since March, and the rooms are not occupied,” she confirmed.

“We are giving it a full refurb, and while the pub is already open, we are trying to work out whether it’s worth letting the five rooms.

“We have been told it will cost around £25,000 for a full fire alarm system, so we probably won’t.”

Before Ms Gwillim and her husband Fred took on the premises, which started life as a coaching inn, it had been unoccupied since 2024 having previously traded as the Whitchurch Spice Tandoori Indian Restaurant and Takeaway.

When the family acquired the pub’s leasehold last November they set about refurbishing and bringing the bar area up to a good standard before The Crown’s soft reopening in March and its formal opening at Easter, complete with refurbished kitchen.

Ms Gwillim said at the time that they would investigate upgrading the inn’s guest suites after the frantic activity of getting the pub ready for business and its external make over.