William Powell, manager at the Eastnor Castle pub

IT has been described by regulars as an “old gem of a pub” – and even a “holiday club for those who can’t afford Saga”.

But the Eastnor Castle pub, in Chalton Street, Somers Town, is at risk of being closed and converted into flats.

Planners at the Town Hall are mulling over a scheme which would see the building’s owners turn it into three flats. It is claimed in the planning application that “the pub is no longer economically viable due in part to its location”.

The planning application posted on the council website claims that, due to “the changing demographics” of the area, a large section of the community do not visit public houses on religious and cultural grounds. But customers are hoping a buyer will come forward to save the pub.

William Powell, who has worked behind the bar for more than eight years, said a 10-year lease was about to finish. He added: “There won’t be a traditional pub left in Somers Town.” The planned flats would not be council homes or affordable housing for families already in the area, he feared. “It’ll be bought up by people rich enough to afford them,” he added.

Mr Powell said: “People will have nowhere to drink eventually. If someone bought it, it would take no work at all to do it up a bit and keep it as a pub, and I think it could still be profitable.”

Billy Ford, 62, who has been drinking in the pub for more than 20 years, said: “It’s an old gem of a pub, with some even older gems inside buying the drinks. I’ve been coming in here to get away from the missus and the grandkids for a couple of hours a day. I can go and sit in the park during the summer, but what about in the winter? Where do we go to get away from it all?”

He added: “It’s a holiday club over here. I can’t afford all these Saga packages, but I come here to unwind. We all know we’re not going to be around forever and we want to make the most of it. For some people making the most of it is going off to the Caribbean and being flash, for others it’s sitting in the pub with the telly on.”

Pub manager William Powell

Walden Thomas, 54, said the pub was one of the few affordable bars in Camden. He would be asking the council to keep it the way it is.

He added: “You wouldn’t shut down a lunch club so why shut down the pub? It’s mostly the over-60s in here too. The only difference is we’re not eating, we’re drinking.

“It’s good for our families for us to come here, because it means we’re not bickering at home. It’s going to have a knock-on effect if we’ve got nowhere to go. The thing about this pub is they don’t force you to keep buying drinks like a lot of the trendy pubs on the high street.”

The Town Hall planning application says Michael Lynn, the freeholder, bought the pub in 1987 and ran it is as the live-in landlord until 2003. He has since leased the pub

It adds: “If the owner was obliged to sell the pub as an ongoing business it is unlikely that a buyer would be found at a commercially viable price given its current poor trading record and inappropriate location.”

The application adds that the pub’s owner had consulted estate agents and found “the location would not prove attractive” for bar operators