Regulars campaign to keep the Windsor Castle open after plans were submitted to turn it into a Korean restaurant

One of Maida Vale’s oldest pubs is due to close its doors for the final time after 150 years to turn into a Korean restaurant.

The Windsor Castle in Lanark Place has served generations of Maida Vale locals through three centuries, but a planning application has been submitted to transform the family pub into a restaurant.

Regular customers, some of whom have been going to the Windsor Castle for almost 50 years, said they would be devastated to say goodbye.

Dale Headley, 40, of Lanark Road, a regular for six years since he moved to the area, said: “It’s a place where we have found meaningful friendships and it’s a huge loss of amenity for the area if it disappears.

“You get a real sense of a typical British pub which is something that is lost in so many places these days.

“One of the things I love about this place is you can walk in here and rub shoulders with guys who only have two pennies to rub together and then on the other side you get the great and good.”

Richard Hester, 68, of Lanark Road, who has been drinking at the pub since 1969, said: “Whenever people come this way I always try to take them into the place because it’s such a quintessential English pub which is a dying thing nowadays.”

But Windsor Castle owner Robert Jones said the pub was no longer financially viable.

He said: “We are very sorry to sell the pub but after having it for the past three years we have come to the conclusion that it’s no longer profitable.”