Comments by "Faithless Hound" (@faithlesshound5621) on "Fire devastates 16th century London pub" video.

There are empty pubs all over the country. They have been closing for decades. People just don't go to pubs any more, so it's futile for councils to insist the buildings continue to be used as such. Before that it was cinemas that were closing - a few managed to stagger on as bingo parlours but most are shut down and are difficult to re-use for another purpose. The councils never insisted that the old inner city cowsheds and stables had to remain in use for animals though that was the "heritage."
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In what sense were the residents "squatters," if this pub building belonged to the owner of the pub across the road? At the least, they must have been "tolerated" by him, if his efforts had been devoted for years to getting planning permission for change of use and not to to removing them.
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