A new “pop-up” restaurant has been granted a premises licence for a former abattoir in Bath.
The former abattoir on Cheltenham Street | Image © Google Street View / Google 2024
It is the latest culinary venture by the Walcot Group, which runs Walcot House and Green Street Butchers in Bath, along with Mother and Wild in Corsham.
Located on Cheltenham Street in Westmoreland, what was once an abattoir is now a production kitchen for the owner’s local restaurants.
An application to secure an alcohol licence for the site states: “It benefits from an enclosed external courtyard which is drenched in sunshine during the summer months.
“We wish to utilise this space — ‘Cheltenham Yard’ — by providing a licensed ‘pop-up restaurant’ with pizza oven, grill, and bar.”
The group applied for a licence to sell alcohol on the premises up until 10pm every day, planning to close at 10.15pm.
Speaking to object to the proposed licence before Bath & North East Somerset Council’s licensing sub-committee, neighbour Emma Sinden said that the street was almost completely residential and about 80% of the houses had young children.
Ms Sinden, who was joined at the committee by other neighbours who did not speak, said she was concerned about the noise of people drinking, among other issues.
She said: “I think it’s going to be very difficult to get a five-year-old child to sleep at seven o’clock at night.”
But the agent for the applicants, Terrill Wolyn, said: “They are responsible applicants who have invested in their premises and their staff.
“They have a positive impact on the communities they serve and there’s no better example of this than the way they transformed what was previously the old Club XL premises on Walcot Street.”
She added that the premises would be “a restaurant with table service where the emphasis is on good food — this is not a boozer, a nightclub, or an end-of-night destination.”
Deborah Still of the Walcot Group added: “A lot of flats in that area don’t have access to gardens, so this gives them somewhere to come outside.”
Members of the licensing subcommittee agreed to grant the licence as applied for.
John Wimperis, Local Democracy Reporter
