Spirit sells 300-year-old London pub for record £27m

The Spirit Pub company has sold the 300-year-old Black Lion pub in Bayswater for £27m, a record for a central London pub.

The buyer, a developer called 123 Bayswater Road Ltd, is expected to convert the building into luxury flats. Spirit, which revealed the sale price in a Stock Exchange announcement, said it will "continue to run the pub for an agreed period" before the redevelopment begins.

The Black Lion is located close to Queensway, which is earmarked for a £500m regeneration project. It was first listed as an alehouse in 1704 and in 1803 it was used as a hub to recruit the Paddington Volunteers, a group formed to fight an invasion by Napoleon.

It is not yet known whether the new owners will close the Black Lion, which last year made a £700,000 profit.