THE fate of an Oxford pub - once popular with cricket teams in the 19th century - hangs in the balance as a planning application has been made to knock it down.

The Coach and Horses on St Clement's Street, Oxford, has been empty for about two years, but now the Oxford building company Linfield Ltd wants permission to demolish it and replace it with a four-storey building including a restaurant and flats.

The listed building is boarded up now but was once a coach house and would have been stop-off point for travellers heading to London.

In the 19th century Oxford University cricket teams played at Cowley Marsh and followed their games with a tea party at the pub, where the landlord was well known for his catering.

The England cricket team was even known to have made an appearance there.

Resident Robin Spokes, of Bath Street, St Clement's, said: "It's hundreds of years old and it was always a popular pub.

"It was full up for years. Now we could be losing another focus point in St Clement's."

The Plasterer's Arms nearby was recently demolished and flats built on the site and there is concern that other pubs in the conservation area are facing the same fate.

A former councillor for St Clement's, Claire Palmer, said: "The thing is these pubs would get business if they were promoted.

"It just takes someone to come and put a bit of effort into it and do it up - just as they did with the Bullingdon in Cowley Road.

The plans still have to be discussed by council committees, but if the application were accepted in its present form, planning permission would be given for a restaurant on the ground floor and seven flats distributed between the three upper floors.

Anyone wanting to raise their concerns about the plans can call St Clement's councillor Mary-Jane Sareva on 07776 075250.