A 19th Century pub is to be demolished by the council after it was deemed unsafe.

Brighton and Hove City Council has applied to level The Cobbler’s Thumb in New England Road, Brighton, after surveys revealed it was subsiding.

The pub has been surrounded by scaffolding and warning signs for weeks and now the council has decided that repair costs would be too high and has applied for permission to pull the building down.

The pub has stood on the corner of New England Road for more than a century and details of the then New England Inn and its landlord feature in the 1881 Census.

The pub has been run by Inn- Brighton for the past decade but the lease ended earlier this year.

Land around the pub, known as Richardson’s Yard, is to be developed later this year with 36 shipping containers to be used as temporary housing for the homeless.

Pete Coppard, president of the Brighton and South Downs branch of the Campaign for Real Ale, said: “It’s been under threat for years. There was a plan decades ago to build a bypass on London Road through New England Street.

“I believe the council bought the pub and it was closed for a while.

“Once the site is owned by the council it always had the shadow of death over it in my opinion.

“It’s sad to see any pub going and we are still losing far too many in Brighton.”

"Urgent attention"

Gavin George, managing director of InnBrighton, said: “It was a short hold agreement, we were just keeping it running.

“The council always had plans to develop round there.

“The pub was doing OK but it wasn’t our busiest.”

A spokesman for Brighton and Hove City Council, which owns the land, said: “The Cobbler’s Thumbis an old building that has structural problems related to subsidence that require urgent attention.

“Remedial works to make it fit for purpose would be very expensive indeed, so we have decided that the best option in terms of value for money for local taxpayers is demolition.”

“No decisions have yet been taken on its future use,” he added.