Sydenham’s residents tasted victory yesterday after the Mayor of Lewisham revealed that the Bromley developer who illegally demolished their pub responded to a council ultimatum letter.

The Greyhound in Kirkdale closed in 2007 and was knocked down in 2012 by Pure Lake, of Plaistow Lane, leaving just the front wall intact, despite it being in a conservation area banning demolition without council consent.

After Lewisham Council prosecuted and fined Pure Lake £5,000 and £13,000 in costs for unauthorised demolition last year, The Sydenham Society continued to push for the historic pub to be rebuilt.

But an unexpected turn of events during the Mayor and Cabinet meeting saw Pure Lake agree to comply with the requests of Lewisham Council to get the pub rebuilt.

Lewisham Council’s head of law Kath Nicholson assured the sceptics “the legal foot will not come off the pedal.”

Sydenham Society chair Annabel McLaren said the group want to see the pub’s owners back on site by December.

She said: "The Sydenham Society welcomes the good news but we're still some way from seeing the Greyhound rebuilt and operating as a pub.”

But Councillor Liam Curran, who campaigned against the pub’s closure, was even more dubious.

He said: "We have been here before. In March 2013 Purelake New Homes Ltd were found guilty in a court of law and admitted that they had acted unlawfully in demolishing The Greyhound pub. They promised to rebuild it and are obliged to do so but have dodged it for the past 18 months.

"Therefore residents, we councillors, The Sydenham Society and locals wanted reassurance that, with this week's report before the mayor, that enforcement action would be taken if the owners do not come up with an agreed timetable for reconstruction.”

He added: “We expect this timetable to be agreed within the next week.”

Pure Lake director Gerry Dowd had claimed at the time of the demolition it had been necessary because of "structural problems" at the building, partly caused by a fire.