'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.
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Michelle Hargreaves, 52, who works as a health and wellbeing coach at Primary Care Network 1 NHS, said: "We could probably do with something community-based there. All of the residents around here come into the city without something on their doorstep. There are no community halls around here, and there's nowhere for people to go unless they go to the squash or tennis club in The Park."
John Harper 70, who's retired and lives locally, said: "It's on a hill so would be difficult for elderly people to get to. I think the only logical thing you could put there is accommodation, and that would certainly be of use to the community here. The city is catered for in every other respect."
Chris Guest, 43, agrees it should be turned into accommodation, saying: "It should be student accommodation." Sandra Petkute, 28, who lives in West Bridgford, said: "I used to live around here but now just work around here, it's in a bit of a funny place.
"Nottingham has a lot of things for students, but there's nothing for young professionals even though students stay in the city. A cool, upmarket co-working space would be nice. I don't think more restaurants are needed, and it definitely should not be a nightclub."
Mr Hart said there had been a lot of interest in the building since it was put on the market, but the restrictions on what it can be used for meant it had not been used since the restaurant closed. He said: "We've not been able to find a suitable buyer since then. A restaurant there would be a competitor but that could be a good thing for us, and I wouldn't rule one out there. People who wanted to buy it previously wanted it to be used as office space or for residential purposes, but then we had the issues with the lease.
"We're not in a tremendous hurry to sell it but we want to sort the lease out first. I started with that site in 1997, and all around here was derelict at that point, and the restaurant really helped to build the area as it is now as we were the first here."
