The removal men turned up at the Drum and Monkey pub on Princes Street early on Monday to take away its gaming machines – just hours after it held its final night celebrations.

And it now looks unlikely that the pub, which opened its doors in 1962 as the Sporting Farmer, will ever reopen – its site is likely to be redeveloped as part of widespread changes to Princes Street.

The pub building and land it is sited on is owned by the borough council – and yesterday officials at the borough had not been told of the pub’s closure by its managers.

Council leader David Ellesmere, who is responsible for economic development in the town centre, said: “We have not been told that they planned to close so from that point of view there is nothing much more that we can say about the situation.”

However the land next to the pub is already planned for redevelopment as offices – and if the pub was empty this could eventually be included in a larger-scale redevelopment.

Mr Ellesmere said: “We have planning permission for the next door site, but it doesn’t include the pub. But in the long term it is not unreasonable to think that site could be included in the changes to the area.”

The site of the Rileys pool and snooker club on the other side of Princes Street is already due to be redeveloped as new offices for law firm Birketts, and the former CSV centre next to the Drum and Monkey is to be the new home for Ipswich Star and EADT publishers Archant.