A former Newport chapel which went on to house numerous nightclubs before it was destroyed in a fire is finally to make way for flats following listed building consent for its demolition. The building at 40 Stow Hill is sitting unused and is now in a state of disrepair but from 1997 until 2007 housed the busiest club in the city called Zanzibar.
The building was damaged by a fire in 2018 that wrecked the neighbouring Bethel Community Church which remains badly affected. Housing association Linc Cymru will now be able to build two new apartment blocks at the old Zanzibar site which will comprise 37 affordable flats.
The plans will include demolishing the building, which has also been known as The Stowaway, Escapade and Lazers, as agreed by the city council’s planning committee in May pending Cadw approval due to its status as a Grade II-listed building. According to the city council that approval has now been received and work can begin.
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Demolition work will soon begin on the rear part of the building but the front-facing façade – considered to add greatly to the character of the area – will be retained. One of the blocks will be five storeys high and will comprise 15 one-bedroom flats and eight two-bedroom flats. The other block will be three storeys high and would include 11 one-bedroom apartments and three two-bedroom apartments.
The documents state that the flats will get associated access, parking, and landscaping but there will only be 13 spaces for 37 flats. A cycle store providing 27 cycle spaces is also proposed within the parking area positioned within a central courtyard. There were some concerns over the conservation of the protected building but a conservation officer concluded parts of it were not salvageable and there were no formal objections to the demolition.
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