Thieves smashed a 149-year-old window to break into a pub and steal a thousand pounds' worth of spirits.

Dean Brent, landlord of the North London Tavern in Kilburn High Road, said he was woken by a "loud bang" followed by the burglar alarm at 3am on Wednesday, May 31.

He saw on CCTV cameras that "people" had smashed a large window next to the door with a brick and stolen multiple bottles of spirits.

"It's terrible," he said. "It's an eight foot by five foot window that's never been broken in the 149 years that the pub's been around. It's heartbreaking. It's a little bit of history someone has broken."

He said it will cost £1,000 to replace the window and the same again to replace the stolen alcohol.

The distraught landlord fears the boarded-up window gives a false impression of the pub and the "fantastic" people who go there.

He added: "For me the worst part is that our clientele is fantastic, the community is great. We do Macmillan charity nights, we do everything. We stay with the community, we look after the community but now when you walk past the premises the first thing you think is 'that pub's a bit rough' but it's not, the people that come into the pub are beautiful.

"It's people who are in need of certain items in their life spoil it for rest of us by damaging property."

Mr Brent said as well as charity nights the pub offers numerous activities such as open mic nights and quiz nights.

"We work with local colleges, teachers, we do every thing above board and something like this happens and it's not nice," he added.

"It's Covid and the recession and the cost of living crisis, it's not fair that the pub should pay for damage and theft."

Mr Brent praised the police response, saying officers and forensic teams "came out early".

The Metropolitan Police said it was unable to comment as it could not locate the incident when contacted by this paper.