The Crooked House: Fire rips through famed 'wonky' pub

A famed 18th Century gathering erstwhile known arsenic "Britain's wonkiest pub" has been wholly gutted by a fire.

Smoke was reported coming from The Crooked House astatine Himley, adjacent Dudley, astatine astir 22:00 BST connected Saturday.

Pictures from country showed the property, which drastically subsided successful the 19th Century, engulfed by flames.

Last month, it was confirmed the owners, Marston's, had sold the fashionable Black Country landmark to a backstage purchaser for "an alternate use".

Staffordshire Fire and Rescue Service said six crews tackled the blaze overnight.

It said the occurrence had mostly been extinguished but the incidental was ongoing and the country remained closed from High Arcal Road to Brick Kiln Lane.

Watch commandant Chris Green, from Tipton occurrence station, said: "The crews had to rotation retired 40 lengths of hose from the Himley Road which was the nearest hydrant."

The Crooked House was a fashionable attraction successful the West Midlands for decades aft Wolverhampton and Dudley Breweries bought it and turned it into a pub successful the 1940s.

Visitors flocked to spot the distinctive gathering and witnesser the optical illusion of coins and marbles seemingly rolling uphill on the bar.

It was archetypal built successful 1765 arsenic a farmhouse but, owed to mining successful the country during the aboriginal 19th Century, 1 broadside of the gathering began to sink.

In March, Marston's listed it for merchantability with a usher terms of £675,000 but thousands of radical signed a petition successful the anticipation of keeping it arsenic a pub.