Willoughby’s bar and nightclub can be turned into flats, SKDC planners decide

The end of an era may be coming for a town nightspot.

Permission has been granted for the building known in Stamford as ‘Centrals’ to be turned into seven flats with shops on the ground floor.

The Pistolas family applied to South Kesteven District Council to convert the 800m sq Willoughby’s bar and nightclub, saying the business was not sustainable in the long term.

When the application was made public in February, Nick Pistolas said the application was merely ‘speculative planning to gauge reaction’ and that “it doesn’t affect the club operation whatsoever for the next few years at least”.

Formerly a cinema, the art deco-style building is currently a ground floor bar with nightclub upstairs, and retail units opening onto Silver Lane. These include Corals, Cuts and More, Healthy Hearing and UTS Electrical.

Members of the planning committee met in Grantham on Thursday (May 30) and were given details of the plans and the building’s history.

The site had been a showroom for town engineering firm Blackstone, was refitted as a cinema in 1926, but caught fire in 1937. Following the cinemas final screening in 1989, there was a flurry of planning applications to change the building’s use for shops, a bingo hall, a ‘fun pub’ and a nightclub.

Members were also told that although the town council and civic society didn’t disapprove, a representation made as a result of publicity said the applicant - named on the planning application as Alex Pistolas - already has two partially completed developments in Stamford, and that it was feared this development ‘would also become an eyesore’.

Councillor for Stamford All Saints ward, Max Sawyer (Ind) echoed this concern but acknowledged it was not something that could be used to determine the application because it was not something that fitted the criteria of ‘planning grounds’.

Harrish Bisnauthsing, the Liberal Democrat district councillor for Stamford St Mary’s ward, said he was concerned about storage space for bins for the seven proposed flats, and space for a potential evacuation of the building and its neighbours, including the Corn Exchange Theatre.

It was pointed out there would not be three bins per flat but larger, shared bins that would be a similar size to those used by Willoughby’s currently.

Councillors voted unanimously in favour of the application.

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