Council votes to buy The Crown pub in Middlesbrough

The former Crown pub sits on a 'prominent site' in the town centre

A council has approved plans to buy a rundown former town centre pub which closed eight years ago.

The Crown Pub, which sits on the corner of Linthorpe Road and Borough Road, is considered to be one of the "most prominent and iconic buildings" by Middlesbrough Council.

The authority's executive has voted to buy the buy the building and its land.

It has not yet decided what to do with it, although a number of uses have been identified.

The meeting heard Middlesbrough Council is in talks with the current owner of the building and hopes to complete the purchase before the end of March.

Although a business case for the site has not been developed, the authority said early consultations had identified a number of preferred community uses for the building, which included an "indoor market place, educational spaces and cultural performance space".

The report said restoring and re-using the building would be a "hugely symbolic investment".

It added there was "no reasonable prospect" of it being restored for commercial use by the private sector because of the costs involved.

Middlesbrough Council said opportunities for the building were significant

The Local Democracy Reporting Service said the building had changed hands several times since it opened as cinema in 1923.

Plans preventing the building from being demolished were passed three months after The Crown closed.

Last week, the local authority found out its £20m bid to the government's Levelling Up fund to transform the former pub and the former House of Fraser was unsuccessful.

The Tees Valley Combined Authority was earlier awarded £8m of government money to develop the area of Gresham behind The Crown.

Plans are being drawn up for a complex of apartments, townhouses and food and drink outlets at the site.