The first Wetherspoons hotel in the North East is set to open in Newcastle next to the pub chain’s Mile Castle venue.
Pub operator JD Wetherspoon has owned and run The Mile Castle on Westgate Road for the last 10 years, turning it into its biggest and busiest city centre venue.
Earlier this year the chain won a bidding war with 30 other firms to snap up neighbouring building Gibb Chambers, the Grade II listed former home of DR C J Gibb, who appears in the the Tyneside anthem The Blaydon Races.
Wetherspoons has big plans for the historic building’s future, as an extension to the four-floor leisure venue next door, where drinkers can stay, literally within stumbling distance of a night out in the Mile Castle.
At the moment Gibb Chambers has 6,887 sq ft of space over four storeys and a basement, plus 11 car parking spaces.
Now the firm has revealed it plans to convert the historic building, built in the 1800s, into a 26-bedroom hotel, to join its 58 other hotels around the UK.
Around £2m is set to be invested into the plans, set to be submitted to city planners, which will also see the creation of a two-storey beer garden.
The nearest Wetherspoon hotel at present is in Whitby, at The Angel Hotel, where prices start at £69 per night. Others around the UK can be booked with prices starting at £39 a night.
Wetherspoon spokesman Eddie Gershon said: “We have submitted a planning application to build a 26 bedroom hotel alongside the pub. This is in addition to the beer garden.
“The overall investment is £2m. We are confident the hotel and beer garden will be a great addition to the pub and the city itself.
“We will await the outcome of the planning application.”
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JD Wetherspoon opened its first hotel in 1998 in Shrewsbury and now has 54 around the UK, all of which adjoin its pubs and are decorated to have their own unique character.
The hotels range in size. All rooms have unlimited free Wi-Fi, en suite bathrooms, TV and tea and coffee-making facilities.
