The illegal destruction of a historic Carlton pub can be traced back to a development company with tens of millions of dollars worth of projects under way across Melbourne.

And one of the firm's companies, which appears to have knocked down the pub, had previously been sued by a property owner – because one of its sub-contractors demolished the wrong house.

Planning Minister Richard Wynne on Tuesday branded the company that wrecked the 159-year-old Leicester Street pub "cavalier cowboy developers" who had acted "reprehensibly".

And Robert Doyle said the razing of the historic pub on the weekend was "the most brazen and wanton act of destructive vandalism that I have seen in my time as lord mayor".