'Student accommodation' and a 'community hub' are among the suggestions on what a former Nottingham city restaurant should be turned into. Harts Restaurant in Park Row stopped serving in January 2019, and it has been up for sale ever since.
Its most recent published guide price is £900,000. Owner Tim Hart downsized in 2019, opening a more intimate restaurant within his boutique hotel next door at the top of Standard Hill. At the time, Mr Hart said it was "very sad" but that the city no longer had the same appetite for upmarket dining as it did when he opened the restaurant in 1997. The old restaurant, which used to be part of Nottingham's old General Hospital, had 80 seats.
As the former restaurant used to be a hospital, the freeholder (landlord) is the Health Secretary, according to Mr Hart. It means people wanting to take it over have had difficulty using the site for anything else other than a high-end restaurant. Mr Hart said an application had been made to the courts for its use to be more easily changed, with a decision expected on that in April. As its ownership could change hands soon, people in the city have shared different views of what should be done with the space.
