Demolition plan for historic Lady Haig is ‘end of an era’

A planning application to demolish the Lady Haig club – a former Royal British Legion site in Stoke Road before it was closed down in 2011 – to make way for 39 one, two and three bedroom flats, was approved during a Slough Borough Council planning meeting on Wednesday.

Roger French, a Communication Workers union representative and a local postman, said the decision felt like the end of an era.

As a customer there himself for roughly 25 years, he said: “It was a focal point of Slough in the old days and yet another old building being pulled down. It’s a shame to lose such an iconic building.”

The development for the former headquarters of the Slough branch of the British Legion, which was built in 1928/29, will stretch from the lower ground level to the fourth storey and will offer eight affordable homes, as well as 39 car parking spaces and cycle parking.

Elias Kupfermann, chairman of Slough Heritage Forum, said: “It’s really sad and very disappointing. Slough council has no idea of the heritage it has.

“It should be saving it and not destroying it.

“I think that the main building that fronts onto Stoke Road is an important piece of Slough history.”

A Slough Borough Council spokesman said: “The Lady Haig building was independently assessed and judged to have a low heritage value. It is not listed, nor is it in a conservation area, and it has been derelict for years, providing no benefit to the community.

“This development will provide 39 much-needed new homes for Slough, while regenerating the area and bringing the site back into use.

“No-one has contacted us – through the planning process or otherwise – to say they’re concerned about the building being knocked down.”

The building was sold after the Lady Haig Royal British Legion (Slough) Club Limited which was running it, fell in to hundreds of thousands of pounds of debt and was put into compulsory liquidation in May 2014.