A man has been arrested on suspicion of arson after a historic pub was gutted by fire.
Fire crews were called to the Grade II-listed Worlds End pub in Tilbury, Essex, at 4.40pm on Wednesday and brought the blaze under control by 6.30pm.
Diarist Samuel Pepys and author Daniel Defoe are said to have drank at the pub, which lies on the River Thames near Tilbury docks and was previously an inn used by sailors and travellers.
A man in his 20s was arrested on suspicion of arson and has been released on bail until November 18.
It comes after three other fires broke out near the pub in the last week.
Four fire engines were sent to Fort Road on Tuesday to fight a fire understood to have involved containers. That followed a fire started deliberately on Monday using rubbish and grass, while another blaze at the same site on Saturday last week burned pallets and general waste.
After the latest fire which destroyed the listed building, Essex councillors said it was a ‘heartbreaking’ loss of ‘incredible heritage’.
A man has been arrested on suspicion of arson after a fire gutted The Worlds End pub in Tilbury, Essex
Fire crews pictured at the pub, which was destroyed by the fire, on Wednesday afternoon
Wednesday’s blaze was the fourth fire within a week in the area
Pepys visited Thurrock twice while writing his diary between 1660 and 1669 and drank at an alehouse close to Tilbury Fort – which would have been on or close to the Worlds End site – at least once.
Grade II-listed by Historic England since 1974, the pub has been closed for months after a difficult trading summer, its owner said.
Its listing described the pub as a two-storey, timber-framed, weatherboarded house built around the late 1600s with a grey slate roof.
The centuries-old pub is understood to have been visited by diarist Samuel Pepys and author Daniel Defoe
Built around the late 1600s, the pub lies close to Tilbury docks
Known as The Worlds End since 1667, it was previously called the Ferry House and the Lamb.
There was an extension on the pub’s north side and a lean-to on the south front from the late 1800s.
Russell Cherry, a Reform UK councillor in Thurrock, said he hoped the pub – a ‘clear and tangible connection to Tilbury’s rich naval history’ – would be rebuilt.
Vinnie Sullivan, a pub and history tour guide, said The Worlds End had been ‘one of the few surviving pubs in the whole of Tilbury’ and had a ‘wonderful, decorative interior’.
