An artist's impression of plans proposed for the London Hotel site in Port Melbourne.  Photo: supplied

A local council that issued a demolition permit for a historic Port Melbourne pub has now asked the planning minister to step in - urgently - to save it from the wrecking ball.

Port Phillip mayor Bernadene Voss has asked Planning Minister Richard Wynne to place an order preventing Port Melbourne's London Hotel being knocked down.

Cr Voss's request comes despite last week saying planning officers had told her the hotel was not worth saving. "Based on this assessment, council will not request the Minister for Planning apply an interim heritage overlay."

That is now what the council has done - demand Mr Wynne step in to save the pub, which was built in 1861 but modified many times since.

But Mr Wynne declined to step in, saying interim heritage protection was only available to state-significant buildings - and that the council itself had said The London was not worthy of local protection.

The London Hotel, built in 1861 and modified in the 1941, could soon be demolished. Photo: Vince Caligiuri

The local MP for the area, Labor's Martin Foley said Port Phillip Council's "last-minute backflip was an attempt to pass a local issue to the state government. This has unfairly raised the hopes of the residents council wanted to appease".

The plan to demolish the building became publicly known last week after local media reported on its fate.

"It's dysfunctional beyond words," said Dane Morrissy​, a member of the Port Melbourne Historical and Preservation Society. The society is campaigning to save the pub.

The company that owns the London Hotel site is controlled by Middle Park resident Gary Busuttil​​. His company bought the hotel three years ago for $4.07 million.

His representatives, speaking at a Port Phillip council meeting on Tuesday night, said the developer had completed several checks with the council, Heritage Victoria and the National Trust before buying the site in 2013.

The spokesman told the meeting it would destroy the company if the project did not go ahead.

Mr Morrissy said that a lot of those who wanted to save the pub felt real sympathy for its owner: "He did his due diligence - they really did their homework to ensure there was no reason it should not be demolished."

The London Hotel in 1967. Photo: State Library of Victoria

But despite the failure of the council to step in to protect it earlier, Mr Morrissy said it would still be sad to lose the pub - which had been in continuous operation for more than 140 years.

"World wars have come and gone, and immigrants - by the millions - have come and gone past it. It's the first pub that people see when they arrive by sea. Most new arrivals … came to this pub, it's the first one they went to for a quenching ale," he said.

He said it would be terrible to lose a local pub that so many people had a "genuine connection" to.

Having said on Tuesday night that the pub was "not considered to meet the threshold of local significance that would warrant application of a heritage overlay", the council will now do a more detailed heritage assessment, focusing on its historic and social significance".

Anna Foley, the National Trust's acting conservation manager, said it was pleasing councillors had commissioned the urgent heritage assessment.

"Locals have been drinking and dining at the London for over 150 years and that's a tradition worth saving. Heritage isn't just about architectural merit, it's about local stories too," she said.