Heritage campaigners are fighting an application to knock down the huge former John Player warehouses on a University of Nottingham site.
John Player and Sons once employed thousands of workers in factories in and around Nottingham. The brand still exists but has a much smaller profile today.
It is owned by Imperial Tobacco, which still runs a factory in Lenton near Boots.
The old Players warehousing on Triumph Road in Lenton was built to house 20,000 tons of tobacco leaf and is now one of the last structural survivors of the brand’s heyday.
But it could be demolished to make way for new builds at the university’s Jubilee campus, if an application to Nottingham City Council is successful.
Ian Wells of Nottingham Civic Society said: “It’s part of our social history. The industries are what caused Nottingham to develop as it is now.
“It’s a landmark as you come into the city as you come across the Crown Island.
“It could be converted internally – I’m certain. There are many possibilities. I’ve heard no good reason to demolish it.”
