Campaigners make last bid to save The Magdala function room

Camden Council's planning committee is set to decide on Thursday (August 20) whether the upstairs room at The Magdala Tavern can be used as a flat - with a recommendation to approve.

In 2014 the owner of the historic watering hole was given planning permission to create two flats at the top of the historic building, on the written understanding that the pub's function room would stay open.

However it remained closed and in 2019 owner and businessman Ori Kalif was refused permission to turn it into a flat.

A later inspection found the landlord had gone ahead and completed the conversion in 2023 - then applied for retrospective permission.

Mr Kalif bought The Magdala in 2014 from Punch Taverns - along with The Carlton Tavern in Maida Vale.

But in 2015 he was ordered by Westminster Council to rebuild the 1920s Carlton Tavern brick by brick after demolishing it without planning permission.

Campaigner Stephen Taylor has made a YouTube video begging locals to lobby councillors not to approve the flat conversion - saying the pub's function room is "deeply missed".

"On Thursday 20 August Camden’s planning committee will decide whether the pub’s function room can be turned into a flat. Write and tell  the councillors why it should not," he wrote.

The video explains that the 100-year-old pub is a registered Asset of Community Value warning that the community's interest in the pub is being "stripped away floor by floor."

Mr Taylor says: "This is not just a planning application it's the latest step in something that has been running for over a decade."

Back in March scores of local groups and residents wrote to Camden Council stating that the upstairs room had long been a place where they had gathered for meetings, community events, and family milestones.

The Friends of The Magdala said it was previously a "hive of activity," while another called the pub "our local community gem".

They want Camden to force the landlord to rip out the flat and restore their function room - saying it undermines the future of the pub and spells the loss of a vital community space.

The 100-year-old pub is famous as the site where Ruth Ellis shot her love David Blakely in 1955. (Image: David Parry/PA)

Richard Morgan who runs the pub as a tenant landlord has previously written to Camden planners saying he would not use the upstairs function room because it would increase staff, heating and business rate costs which "could put the viability of the pub into jeopardy".

In the report to Thursday's committee officers write: "The applicant has followed the required procedure under the Asset of Community Value legislation with respect to making the first floor available for acquisition for community use.

"The owner served a notice for the disposal in accordance with the procedure in June 2024. Two groups were approached by the owner of the property offering the opportunity to purchase the space, which had been converted into a flat, as an ACV but no meaningful interest in purchasing the property was proffered."

The Magdala is famous as the site of the 1955 murder of David Blakely by Ruth Ellis, who became the last woman to be hanged in Britain.