Plans to turn a run-down set of public toilets into a tiny gin bar have been given the green light - and it could be open by April.
Developer WC Newcastle Ltd has won planning permission to transform the disused female loos in High Bridge into The Gin Closet - which would be one of the UK’s smallest drinking venues.
The project is the firm’s second bid to revamp derelict public conveniences in Newcastle city centre, alongside the renovation of the famous Bigg Market underground toilets to create a wine bar.
Entrepreneur Steven Blair, who is behind the plans, says that he hopes that both of the “exciting” schemes will come to fruition in the new year.
He said: “The project is going well on the Bigg Market. We are working around the clock to get it finished for the end of January.
“At High Bridge, planning permission was granted last Friday. We are now instructing solicitors to get everything sorted and the design team are putting things in place which we can hopefully implement from the middle of February. And hopefully it can open in the middle of April.”
The High Bridge toilets, next to the Kaltur restaurant on the cobbled city centre street, were put up for auction in 2016 and measure up at just 11 square metres inside – but the developer says it could accommodate up to 30 gin lovers at a time.
The building is believed to date back to the late eighteenth or early nineteenth century.
In a report approving planning permission for the site, Newcastle City Council said that the redevelopment would “contribute to the vitality of the city enabling re-use of the vacant property and adding to the mix of uses in the city centre”.
The Tin of Sardines gin bar in Durham has laid claim to being the country’s smallest, with room to serve just 16 people.
Both the High Bridge and Bigg Market toilets were among the public loos closed down due to local authority budget cuts.
The historic Bigg Market site was handed over to WC Newcastle in October after restoration work on the subterranean loos was completed.
The developer has said that the venue, which dates back to 1898, will be an “intimately designed and atmospherically lit subterranean bar, in keeping with the Victorian heritage, but fused with a modern outlook and feel”.
