Former Hourglass Pub in Hartlepool reduced to rubble

The pictures come at the same time as an update on the future of the site previously home to a dilapidated former pub which fire brigade chiefs said they are “glad to see down”.

Proposals were approved earlier this year by Hartlepool Borough Council's planning department to knock down The Hourglass pub building in Eaglesfield Road, with the work taking place in May.

The site had previously been hit with numerous fires since it became vacant in 2019, leading to councillors calling for urgent action to make it safe.

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Speaking at the latest meeting of the council’s audit and governance committee, local authority officers acknowledged it took a “long time” to knock down the building, labelling the process “a challenge”.

The former Hourglass Pub is now just a pile of rubble (Image: LDR)

Tony Hanson, executive director of development, neighbourhoods and regulatory services, said: “I appreciate the fact there is still a bit of work to do there.

“We continue to work with them [the owners] to support them through the planning application process which hopefully will result in that [the debris] being moved and the site developed in the longer term.

The pub in its dilapidated state (Image: LDR)

“That’s the aim, which again would be good news for the site.”

An update has now been made about the former Hourglass site (Image: LDR)

At the latest meeting of the Safer Hartlepool Partnership, Cleveland Fire Brigade bosses thanked everyone involved in demolishing the site, which they labelled a “magnet for deliberate fire setting”.

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Craig Strike, head of prevention and engagement, said: “I’m glad to see it’s down.

“Every time we get one of these calls we have to work on the basis that somebody has gone into that building to set it on fire.

“Then we have to commit firefighters into what we know is an unsafe building, when from experience we know the chances are the perpetrators have left. We always have to treat it as the worst case.”