Thanks to a bad case of subsidence the Crooked House in the Black Country, had become a landmark. Punters talked about how its alarming lean made you feel drunk before you got to your pint, while badly made shelves were said to be ‘as straight as the Crooked House’.
But then it was bought by developers, caught fire and was immediately demolished. For many people it seemed like a symptom of how loved, local pubs were disappearing, while the nature of the pub’s destruction also raised interest across the country – and beyond.
The Guardian’s Midlands correspondent Jessica Murray spoke to people in the area about what the pub meant to them and why anger has been building about the way it was flattened. And, she tells Hannah Moore why so many people feel pubs are under attack.
Photograph: Nick Maslen/Alamy/PA
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