Cheers! Popular Spoons pub in Sutton wins approval for new £825,000 beer garden
One of the most popular pubs in Sutton is to splash out more than £800,000 on a new beer garden in time for the summer after winning planning consent.
The Picture House, on Fox Street, is run by the national pub giant JD Wetherspoon, which submitted a proposal to Ashfield District Council for an extensive redevelopment scheme.
Now it has been given permission to construct the outside beer garden, complete with dozens of tables, festoon lighting, covered pergolas, trees, landscaping and heated areas, at the back of the large pub, which used to be a cinema and then a bingo hall.
The plan, which Wetherspoon intends to spend about £825,000 on, also includes a revamped car park, with eight spaces, including one for the disabled, a new, enclosed bin store and a new boundary fence along Fox Street.
Nottinghamshire County Council, which manages the county’s roads, initially objected to the scheme on the grounds that a new access and the re-location of a taxi rank would cause traffic issues. However, Wetherspoon agreed to amend its plans.
The beer garden will be created on an area of undeveloped, derelict land that used to house a council building, which was demolished.
The council’s planning committee heard that it had not received any objections from nearby residents or businesses.
A report said it was “unlikely to have a detrimental impact on the character of the street” or on residents living in flats above nearby shops and would bring to life a piece of land currently serving no purpose.
The council’s planning officers did accept that a busy beer garden would attract some noise. But it was “within a built-up town-centre location where a level of background noise can be expected”.
Inside The Picture House, Wetherspoon also intends to carry out a re-configuration of the first floor layout to create improved areas for staff, including new toilers and changing rooms.
Dating back to the 1930s, the building was originally the King’s cinema but became a casualty of the general decline in movie-going during the 1960s and closed its doors in 1967.
Within a few weeks, it reopened to a full house as the Star Bingo and Social Club, which survived into the 1990s.
More recently, it traded as the Picture House nightclub before becoming part of the Wetherspoon pub group.
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