DIFFERENT LEVEL
Potential buyers at on their hands during the auction
BRITAIN's new "wonkiest pub" has gone up for sale for just £178,000 - after the Crooked House boozer burned down in a suspected arson.
The Tilted Barrel in Tipton in the Black Country was put up for auction today.
It has a "particularly obvious lean" after it was battered by mining subsidence in the 19th century.
The auctioneer set a guide price of £178,000 and started by asking for a £180,000 bid - but was met with stony silence, according to the Express and Star.
Potential buyers still sat on their hands when he lowered the suggested bid to £170,000.
Only when he dropped the price by another £10,000 did someone put up their hand, with bids slowly climbing back up to £170,000.
But when the auctioneer asked for a bid of £172,000, none was forthcoming - so he marked the Grade II-listed pub as unsold.
The auctioneer had compared the lop-sided West Midlands pub to the nearby Crooked House, which was dubbed Britain's "wonkiest pub" before it was gutted by a fire and razed in August.
Carly Taylor and her husband Adam had bought the Crooked House before the blaze, which cops are treating as an arson.
They have not been identified as suspects by police investigating the pub's destruction, who have arrested a number of people.
Protesters later blocked the burnt-out remains of the pub - after contractors moved in to remove rubble where it once stood.
A sit-down protest on the lane leading to the pub stopped a lorry from reaching it.
It is not clear what will now happen to The Tilted Barrel following the failed auction.
