The owner of a beloved pub in Grove Park has insisted it will not close after it was delisted as an asset of community value.

The Baring Hall Hotel was the first building in the borough to be listed as an asset of community value in January 2013.

It was set to be demolished and turned into flats and shops until it was saved in 2011 after outcry from locals, and reopened as a pub at the start of 2014 with new owners Antic.

However memory of how close it was to shutting has stuck and campaigners believe the pub is still under threat, despite the owner insisting multiple times it will remain open.

The pub was removed as an asset of community value five years after it was originally listed as part of the natural process and community group The Baring Trust applied for it to be considered again.

The decision due date is March 9 this year, and The Baring Trust tweeted: “We have applied to Lewisham Council for the renewal of Asset of Community Value (ACV) for the beloved Baring Hall Hotel in Grove Park - one of the first pubs in the country to be awarded ACV status.

“Five years went quickly and the pub - like so many others - is still under threat!”

However the Antic Pubs twitter account responded with: “There are NO plans to close Baring Hall Hotel.

“The Baring Hall will stay a pub. We welcome ACV status of course, however please be aware that the Baring is not under threat.

“An ACV shows that the site is valued by the community so we will always welcome this. It benefits us too.”

Plans to demolish buildings at the side and rear of the Baring Hall Hotel for new flats was accepted last year, October 16, which campaigners believed would spell the end for the building as a pub.

However at the time Antic owner Anthony Thomas told News Shopper they had no plans to shut the pub and needed to develop the land at the site as they had lost money there every year.

Antic tweeted: “As for the Baring. We are not partially demolishing anything, save for part of a wall not part of the original building.

“We planned to build flats to the rear where there are currently horseboxes. The proposed flats will help us generate income to pump back into the Baring.”