REPLACING one of London’s landmark pubs with a Foxtons estate agency branch would be part of the capital’s “scandalous social cleansing,” campaigners claimed yesterday.

A pub standing for the tavern which gave Elephant & Castle its name 250 years ago is set to be transformed soon.

Southwark planners received a letter from the estate agents in April advising of their intention to open a branch in place of The Elephant & Castle.

Southwark has a week left to decide whether to list the pub as an asset to the community before the change is automatically authorised without the need for planning permission.

Local housing campaigners are not pleased with the proposed changes, condemning Foxtons for “profiteering” from the area’s sky-rocketing property prices.

People’s Republic of Southwark spokeswoman Liliana Dmitrovic told the Star: “The vast majority of the people who live in Southwark now, and especially those the council promised would be able to return to the Heygate Estate, cannot afford the new homes.

“Not to buy, not to rent.

“Profiteering from the regeneration violence and the scandalous social cleansing is what Foxtons do.

“Nobody in their right mind can welcome that.”

The coveted pub closed earlier this year after having its licence revoked due to a violent incident between customers in which a man got stabbed in the head with a pen.

Foxtons has frequently been the target of housing campaigners’ wrath for charging “rip-off” fees and driving house prices up.

During a community demonstration in nearby Brixton in April the local Foxtons branch window was smashed and its walls graffitied with the words “no evictions.”