Strictly Come Dancing star Arlene Phillips has thrown her weight behind a campaign to save a historic pub from demolition.
Ms Phillips, a former judge on the hit BBC dance show, is backing Primrose Hill residents – including her daughter Alana – who are fighting plans to knock down The Adelaide.
The pub has stood in Adelaide Road since the 19th century but now faces the wrecking ball under a scheme that Camden Council planning officers have recommended for approval.
Ms Phillips, who turned 70 yesterday and received a CBE in January, said: “I am shocked and saddened to hear that The Adelaide pub, which has been there for as long as I can remember, is being needlessly torn down.
“More jobs could be created using the property to its full potential. I’m amazed that Camden Council have even considered it, without exploring fully other ideas for the site.”
The developers want to replace the historic pub with a three-storey terrace of five houses, complete with a basement car park level. Residents say the design is unsympathetic to the area and too large, with many complaining it will wreck their treasured views across London.
The scheme goes before councillors tonight (Thursday) and if it is granted, it will be the second pub lost to Primrose Hill in the space of two weeks.
Comedian Harry Enfield was last week granted permission to convert the former Queens No1 pub in Edis Street, which he bought last year after the landlord retired, into a five bedroom home.
Ms Phillips’ daughter Alana, 33, a make-up artist who lives next to The Adelaide, in Elsworthy Rise, said: “It’s basically going to be a wall right on the edge of my roof terrace. It’s so upsetting.
“My roof terrace was the reason I bought the house. To be able to have a view like that and that kind of space in central London is unheard of.”
Tony Manwaring, of nearby Elliot Square, who runs a think tank, said: “The Adelaide is a landmark building that has survived bombs and wars.
“Although we are sad to lose the pub, we are not opposed to development per se. Maybe it needs to move on, but what’s being proposed is an absolutely hideous design and would be an appalling eye sore.”
The Adelaide has not been operating as a pub in recent years, while The Queens No1 closed last year.
Mr Manwaring added: “With both pubs going, there’s a sense of key points of the community being destroyed.”
Computer consultant Richard Goldblatt, 62, of Elsworthy Rise, said: “We like having the pub here. It’s a lovely building and it could be preserved by turning it into a restaurant or hotel instead.”
The developer could not be reached for comment.
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