A vacant pub that is “attracting criminal behaviour” will be demolished to potentially make way for a 321 room student block

The Valentine, in Perth Road, Gants Hill, will be bulldozed after Redbridge Council granted planning permission to demolish the building at a planning committee meeting last week.

Prospective plans for the site, which have yet to be approved, would see a 10-storey student block erected with 321 rooms.

The Valentine, built in 1930, is currently boarded up and has been vacant since it was closed in 2017.

Council documents say “numerous works” have been undertaken to secure the site from incursions in response to “neighbours requesting a police presence at the site”.

The documents state: “The site makes no contribution to the town centre it forms part of, being boarded up and of some concern to the local police and community safety team as it is attracting criminal behaviour.”

Five individuals wrote to the council to object to the pub being demolished and a petition has been handed in opposing the plans – a further 30 have written to oppose Tide Construction’s plans to build a student block on the site.

Concerns raised by residents include the loss of the pub’s “iconic heritage structure” - notably the high stack brick chimneys.

The council estimates demolition will take up to four weeks.