A HISTORIC pub and a horse hospital used by the brewery industry would be destroyed by a £30m new hotel, historians have warned.

The Dominvs Group wants to build a 150-bed hotel on the corner of Paradise Street and St Thomas’ Street with a restaurant and a microbrewery.

Oxfordshire Architectural and Historical Society said it welcomes the redevelopment of the Cooper Callas building, which makes up much of the site.

It urged the developer not to demolish the buildings, which are currently used as private homes.

The group says the buildings provide a last link to the brewing industry in the suburb of St Thomas dating from medieval times right up to 2003, when Morrell’s Lion Brewery closed.

The horse hospital was built in 1887 to treat horses used by breweries to deliver beer around the city. The Brewery Gate opened its doors in 1896.

Their buildings are among just a handful which survived post-war clearance and redevelopment of St Thomas.

The society has now written a formal objection to the developer, also detailing concerns about the “radical altering of the historic view” and the “overbearing bulk” of the proposed hotel.

Secretary Liz Woolley, of Grandpont, said: “We object strongly to the demolition of the former horse hospital and the Brewery Gate pub and urge the developer either to leave them in their current use as a private dwelling or to include them in the hotel plans. Tourists come to Oxford primarily for its history and an attractive Victorian pub on site and a courtyard area named The Old Horse Hospital could well prove to be assets.”

Ms Woolley said one former St Thomas’ resident remembered in the early 1930s seeing elephants from a circus at Oxpens taken to the hospital to have their feet treated.

It was later incorporated into the adjacent pub and now forms part of the residential house there.

Dominvs Group’s legal manager Lee Saywack said the company was grateful for all the comments it had received following a public exhibition of its plans on July 4.

He said: “We are gathering together feedback and will respond accordingly in due course after all responses are received.

“The purpose of the public exhibition was to engage with neighbours and the local community and to seek feedback, prior to submission of a formal application, on a draft scheme proposal.”