A council is poised to demand a demolished historic pub be rebuilt ‘brick by brick’ after it was demolished without permission.
Westminster City Council is expected to next week issue an unprecedented enforcement order requiring the owners of the Carlton Tavern in Maida Vale to ‘recreate in facsimile the building as it stood immediately prior to its demolition’.
The 1920s pub survived bombing during the Second World War but was bulldozed in April. The local authority had received an application to demolish the building and replace it with mixed-use accommodation but councillors turned it down.
However the owners, Tel Aviv-based company CLTX, went ahead with demolition, in a move that cllr Jan Prendergast told the BBC ‘came as such a shock to everyone’.
It sparked local outrage with people spraying ‘this is vandalism’ on boarding surrounding the building site.
A council order for the reconstruction of a building this size could mark a UK first. The decision would also stop the firm from selling the site until the pub has been rebuilt.
Director of planning at Westminster City Council, John Walker, said: ‘There is a paper going to planning committee next week. Obviously, we cannot pre-empt any decision, but this shows how important the issue is to local residents and the council, and officers have worked hard to bring this to the committee as quickly as possible.
‘We are still liaising with Historic England and DCMS and the advice provided by them will help to determine the final course of action.’
CLTX is understood to be appealing the decision to refuse consent, the Standard reports. The company was unable to be reached for comment.
