Crown regulars, from left, Andy Lane, Mark Spittle, Richard Stedman and Richard Nicoll

REGULARS are campaigning to ensure their treasured pub is preserved forever after it was put on the market.

The freehold of the Crown pub in Cloudesley Road, Barnsbury, is up for sale, with the deadline for bids closing at noon yesterday (Thursday).

Richard Nicoll, a member of the Friends of the Crown group, said: “We reckon it’s the best locally supported pub in the area.

“The endgame is to try and keep it as it is, and maybe make it even more of a community pub.”

The group has petitioned the council to ­classify the pub as an asset of community value (ACV). This would mean that if the pub and its lease were ever to be sold, they would get a six-month-long chance to raise the funds to buy it for the community.

Mark Spittle, another member of the group said: “It really is a community place. I’ve met a lot of people through this pub – there are four of us in this group who are members of The Crown Regatta crew. For the last seven years we’ve been sailing in the Solent, Turkey, Greece, Majorca, Menorca.”

The Friends of the Crown group said there had been assurances from both the Cloudesley Trust and Fleurets estate agents that the freehold is being sold as a pub to a buyer who wants to keep it that way – but they were still pressing ahead with a petition, which has more than 900 signatures, to gather community support for the ACV application.

Mr Spittle said: “We’re hoping that people learn and understand what’s going on here, and feel like rebelling against it – even though we’ve not got much to rebel against yet – but we want to make the point known.

“It’s about letting everybody know that this is something that they could lose.

“This is very much a little village, and this pub is one of the important parts of it.”

Andy Lane, another group member, added: “Once it’s gone, it’s gone, and once it’s gone physically, it’s gone socially as well.

“You could rebuild the pub, but it would be much harder to rebuild the social side.”

Melanie Griffiths, the director of the Cloudesley Trust, said: “We’re increasing our grants budget, so we need to have the cash to pay for those grants, and that’s why we’re selling the pub’s freehold.

“We went with an agent that specialised in the leisure industry that specialised in selling pubs … They’ve marketed it to trade press to people who have got pubs already.”

Elysia Wilson-Gunn, who is leading the sale for Fleurets, said: “We sell pubs as Fleurets to be continued as pubs, so it will stay as is.”

Islington Council declined an invitation to comment.

Fuller’s, the current leaseholders, did not wish to comment until after the sale of the freehold is complete.

• Sign the petition here: https://www.change.org/p/save-the-crown-pub-barnsbury