Plan for cafe laneway behind Sydney’s Robin Hood pub

The family that owns the Robin Hood pub in Sydney’s east want to create a retail laneway behind it similar to Broadway’s Kensington St, with new restaurants and cafes and even bee hives on the roof.

Daniel Whitten, whose family has owned the heritage-listed building at the famous Waverley intersection for 40 years, wants Charing Square to include up to eight eateries with 29 apartments above.

Urban planner Stephen Moore of RobertsDay says: “Charing Square will also be a model for local sustainability with current ideas including water harvesting, solar energy and even bee hives on the roofs that may be utilised by local cafes.”

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Daniel Whitten, licensee of the Robin Hood Hotel in Waverley, wants to convert the area occupied by the pub’s bottle shop and neighbouring property into a Kensington St Chippendale-style laneway development. Picture: John Appleyard.

Whitten has presented the proposal to Waverley Council for consideration.

“The Robin Hood is a great suburban local pub and we want to keep it that way, but the streetscape is dead,” Whitten says.

Artist’s impressions of the Robin Hood redevelopment.

“It’s a C-grade shopping strip and we want to bring in some cafes that will appeal to people walking their dogs at 7am through to people wanting to drop into a wine bar of a night.”

The plan follows their purchase of a site behind the bottleshop between Bronte Rd and Carrington Rd.

Artist’s impressions of the Robin Hood redevelopment at Charing Cross.

The proposal transforms 30% of the land into a publicly accessible laneway and plaza. See the plans at www.charingsquare.com.au.

This article from the Wentworth Courier originally appeared as “Plan to create Kensington St-style laneway behind Robin Hood pub”.