A LONG-standing working men's club in Winchester is set to be sold for more than half a million pounds.

Developers were in a bidding war for East Winchester Social Club last week after an alleged drop in business led to its closure.

Potential buyers of the historic building, in Chesil Street, included commercial and residential developers.

A guide price of £550,000 was set by estate agents Charters, but the winning bid is expected to be higher. Any sale must be agreed by the club's 250-strong membership, which owns the property.

Members have long expressed concern over a new Extra Care housing block which is set to be built on its doorstep, replacing Chesil Street's open air car park.

Many customers used the facility and managers warned for years that the development, approved by Winchester City Council in February, would threaten trade.

However, it is unclear why the committee decided to sell. Trustees of the social club, which opened in 1923, were unavailable for comment.

The sale of a working class club for potentially lucrative development will be seen as a sign of Winchester's changing social make-up.

Conservative ward councillor Ian Tait said: "It was struggling. It was aimed at working class people. It met the needs of a lot of people where the price of a pint of beer was important to them.

"It's functional and it's homely, but it is functional and you wouldn't go there for the atmosphere – you go there for the people. It needs a big investment and there just isn't the market for it.

He added: "The people that they aim for is a reducing market in Winchester – you don't see the Black Boy [a high-end pub] struggling. The worry in Winchester is that we're just going increasingly upmarket."

Brett Coleman, of Charters estate agents, said East Winchester Social Club could be subject to a third round of bidding if no deal is struck this week.

It is one of several Winchester facing contrasting fortunes. The future of Royal Antediluvian Order of Buffaloes (RAOB) club, in Cross Keys Passage, has been uncertain for years due to the Silver Hill development, while the 100-year-old Winchester Club in Worthy Lane is set for rejuvenation under new chairman Jerry Wahlberg.