West Midlands mayor calls for Crooked House pub to be rebuilt ‘brick by brick’ - The Guardian

Andy Street has called for the Crooked House pub to be “rebuilt brick by brick” after it was demolished following a huge fire over the weekend.

The building, known as the Britain’s “wonkiest pub” and dating back to 1765, was gutted by a fire on Saturday night just two weeks after it was sold to a private buyer.

On Monday the remains of the building in Himley, near Dudley in the Black Country, were demolished, hours after Staffordshire police said they were gathering evidence as part of an investigation into the cause of the fire.

It is not yet clear who demolished the pub.

Street, the mayor of the West Midlands, said he had written to the leader of South Staffordshire council, Roger Lees, asking him to ensure the building was rebuilt, and any application to change its use was blocked.

“This pub may be just over the border in your county of Staffordshire, but it clearly holds real cultural and historical significance to the West Midlands. We therefore found it deeply upsetting to see the iconic location gutted in this way,” the letter read.

“We therefore ask you to consider ensuring the property is rebuilt brick by brick (using as much original material as possible) before any further discussion about the future of the site take place.”

He added: “We would strongly ask you to consider not allowing any alternative use and instead keeping this iconic location as a pub. It is in all our interests that we do not allow the Crooked House pub to be consigned to history.”

On Monday, Staffordshire police said they were “reviewing all of the available evidence alongside fire investigators to determine the cause of the incident”.

Firefighters said they struggled to access the building when it was ablaze on Saturday as large mounds of dirt were blocking the road leading up to it.

The station commander, Liam Hilton, from Staffordshire fire service said they were “a good 800 metres to approximately 1,000 metres distance” from the building meaning they had to get water from a “high volume pump”.

In another letter to the chief constable of Staffordshire police and the chief fire officer, Street said “there are major questions to be answered given how swiftly this fire happened following the sale of the pub to an unknown private developer”.

“We are also intrigued by the fact your officers faced blocked access when trying to get to the scene,” he said.

Staffordshire police and Staffordshire fire and rescue service have been approached for comment.

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2023-08-08 08:41:00Z
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