A STRUGGLING Croydon pub has applied for planning permission to be completely rebuilt.
Ye Olde Clock Tower, in Whitehorse Road, would be knocked down and replaced by a bar with eight flats above it.
Owners Jim MacGuire and Mary McDonagh are seeking permission to help save their business, which they say has been hit hard by the recession.
Mr MacGuire said: "We had to do something. It's like this everywhere but we didn't want to give up.
"We see the area is getting a lot of development and we thought this would be a good time to change, to hopefully cater better for those demands.
"The current building is not really fit for purpose."
Mr MacGuire insists the new bar, which would have the same name, is not specifically aimed at a different demographic.
He said: "You open your doors and all you can hope for is for nice people to walk through them."
Mr MacGuire, who has been in charge of the pub for 15 years, is hoping to have it reopened within six months of any work starting.
He said: "We will try to open it as quickly as possible because we obviously don't want to be losing money forever. But once we do, we will be serving food and starting to get behind the real ale movement, which has taken off massively."