Part of a former Mansfield nightclub will be knocked down so two Wetherspoon venues can combine and create a large beer garden. Plans were approved last year to demolish the rear parts of the former QI nightclub, on Leeming Street, to make way for the combined facilities for the Stag and Pheasant and Widow Frost pubs.
Documents from the original application show the beer garden will have capacity for as many as 200 seats and would boast a heated and covered area. The two Wetherspoon venues would then be combined to form one single pub, with the beer garden accessed via an altered Stag and Pheasant.
Now developers behind the scheme have confirmed their plans for the part-demolition of the QI club, which closed more than a decade ago. About 830 square metres of QI, which sits behind the Stag and Pheasant, will be demolished, with the beer garden to form about 393 square metres of that land.
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The former nightclub and entrance area of QI would then be used as a bin storage area for the combined Wetherspoon venues, with the frontage to be renovated. The work will include the removal of “asbestos-containing materials” from the former QI and the controlled demolition of parts of the former nightclub, documents confirm.
The demolition will then allow for the creation of the beer garden, the extension of Stag and Pheasant and the merging of the two pubs. A new, central entrance will be created for the Stag and Pheasant on Clumber Street, with the existing patio area removed, while the bar would be moved to the left-hand wall rather than being central to the pub.
Documents approved by Mansfield District Council last week add noise will be “kept to a minimum” and within regulations, with construction workers to also reduce the volume of dust generated by demolition. Project dates for the demolition have not been outlined at this stage but the first phase is slated to last 16 weeks.
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The principal contractor for the scheme is Coccion Construction Ltd, the company which submitted the now-approved documents to Mansfield District Council, but a demolition subcontractor is yet to be appointed. The work is expected to take place between 8am and 6pm, Monday to Friday, and between 8am and 1pm on Saturdays “where required”.
Documents approved by the authority last year added: “We believe that the planning application will make a positive contribution to the character of the area. Although the proposal is to demolish the rear portion of the former QI nightclub, it is proposed to retain the front part of the building, so that the street view will be unaffected by the demolition of the building behind.
“We will be enhancing the area from an unused and deteriorating building into a vibrant outdoor space for the existing Stag and Pheasant public house.”
