Urban75 Home About Offline BrixtonBuzz Contact

Wonky 18th century pub, The Crooked House, mysteriously burns to the ground after new owners take over

It's international news now


NYT surprisingly has a rather large London office now. Maybe 100+? Employs a few Brits too, which may explain why they led on the Nick Cohen case.

I think it's both to cover UK and this part of the world on different timezones.
 

I love this quote...

Mr. Wright was one of a few hundred people who gathered at the rubble of the site on Tuesday. “It’s probably the only pub in the world where you’d come out and feel more sober than when you were in,” he said. “It was a really bizarre feeling that you couldn’t experience anywhere else. And it made everyone who came really happy.”

Reminds of getting pissed on barges, only to feel more sober after getting off them.
 
Interesting piece about the possibilities of an actual rebuild

(Tldr: it’s possible but would be bloody expensive. Still, the Taylor’s could afford it)

 
And generally they get away with it, and I very much doubt that anything that will happen here will put this particular pair of cunts off long-term.
Yeah, however they come out of this they'll move on to the next thing. Are timeshares still a thing? Bitcoins (whatever they are)? Ripping pensioners off? Pure scum.
 
There's a precedent for owners/developers being ordered to rebuild a pub they had demolished.

Indeed. There's a pub in Sydenham that the owners were forced to rebuild too.
 
A brick by brick rebuild was was only possible with the Carlton Tavern, because the local pressure group suspected that the developers were going to pull a stunt, and had Historic England photograph and document every inch of the pub right down to taking plaster casts of all of the tiling, so a detailed record was available for the rebuild. If that hasn't been done for TCH, a facsimile rebuild will probably be considered impossible.

As things stand, jail time is unlikely. Even if it was shown to be arson, proving who was responsible to a degree likely to result in convictions is a whole different matter unless someone comes forward and grasses them. That would probably have to be the match-lighter, and he'd end up doing time too. The demolition of the building is nothing to do with the police, so any remedies to this are likely to be in the hands of the planners rather than the police/courts. The best you can probably hope for is an order to rebuild a pub, rescinding of any permissions granted or pending, and a massive skidmark on these people that'll hopefully affect any future applications they make.

There's also some small comfort to be taken in the fact that Mr and Mrs Taylor are highly likely to be be shitting their pants at the moment and will be for quite some time.
What if the match-lighter, assuming its not the owner themselves, was given immunity if they fingered who'd ordered the matches?
 
Back
Top Bottom