Colchester News
Colchester: Old Seige House is sold
10:30am Saturday 31st July 2010
ONE of Colchester’s best known buildings has been bought by a local investor.
The late 15th-century Old Siege House on East Street has been on the market since May last year with an asking price in the region of £925,000.
The grade II Listed building, currently the subject of a 15-year lease, will continue to run as a 115-cover restaurant, a role it has fulfilled since 1976.
A former office to the nearby Marriage’s flour-milling operation, it is famed for the musketball holes - reminders of the 1648 Siege of Colchester - which, to this day, can be seen peppered across its timber framework.
They were discovered by Wilson Marriage, Colchester’s Mayor in 1913, during its adaptation to commercial use in the early 1900s.
As a result of the find, he named the property the Old Siege House and published a booklet on it.
Up to the mid-1970s, the riverside building was left empty and soon attracted vandals. With decay setting in, Beefeater stepped in, spending £150,000 on a conversion to a pub and steak house.
By 1998, one of 40 Beefeaters put on the market, it changed hands in a £36 million deal.
Vandalism fears arose again in 2000, after owners, the Crowded House Pub Company, went into administrative receivership. But within months new tenant, Mario Casella, re-opened it as an Italian restaurant.
In 2006, after Mr Casella saw takings tailing off, Colchester Council approved a residential change of use.
But, at the last minute, Matthew Mason, owner of the Mason’s group with restaurants in Maldon and Great Yeldham, decided to rescue the Tudor building, ensuring that it would remain open to the public.