By Pam McClounie

Last updated at 12:39, Wednesday, 06 February 2013

Demolition experts have moved in to dismantle a former historic Carlisle pub.

Demolition begins on the Rose & Crown

The Rose & Crown pub on Upperby Road is being flattened to make way for housing.

Developers Cumbrian Properties had insisted that everything possible was done to save the rundown “eyesore” and that demolition was the best and safest option.

The Rose & Crown, which used to have its own bowling green, was one of several pubs built and designed by Harry Redfern in the late 1920s and early 1930s as part of the famous Carlisle and District State Management Scheme.

Squatters had moved into the building in recent times, the central heating system had been ripped out, and lead had been taken off the roof.

Last month, former city MP Eric Martlew branded plans to demolish the pub as “an act of vandalism”. Mr Martlew made the comments after learning that Cumbrian Properties wanted to knock down the pub to replace it with semi-detached houses.

Adrian Hogarth, of Cumbrian Properties, said: “It’s an eyesore and the longer it is left the more of an eyesore it will become.

“Every attempt has been made to do something with the property.

“But it’s being vandalised by people who are accessing it and it’s being destroyed: they are the real vandals.”

Mr Hogarth also showed the News & Star a letter from English Heritage which said that the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport had decided not to add the pub to a list of buildings of special architectural or historic interest.

Mr Hogarth said it had taken six months for experts to consider whether or not to add it to the list.

First published at 11:36, Wednesday, 06 February 2013
Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk