The Voice of Spalding and South Holland
There’s worries over what Spalding’s nightlife could look like in future after plans were submitted to turn one in the town centre into flats.
An application has been submitted to convert Mulberry’s Bar, Swan Street, into three one-bedroom maisonettes.
And with other town centre pubs including The White Horse, The Black Swan and PE11 currently up for sale, there’s concerns as to how many will re-open when allowed under government guidance.
The Red Lion Hotel in Market Place was also recently on the market but has since been taken off.
The application says Mulberry’s Bar, formerly The Chequers, was one of a few independently-run pubs in the area.
The pub’s Facebook page says it was offering Guinness at a discount in November and it had re-opened on July 31 when there was a brief respite from lockdown.
Currently the building is classified as part pub and part residential and the application is to change the ground floor into three self-contained homes.
The pub’s owner Mark Woodroffe, of Crowland, called the decision to close it “heartbreaking”.
He told The Voice that the reason behind the closure was financial and after purchasing it in 2015 the living accommodation above the pub was what kept the building as a whole viable.
“At the end of the day it wasn’t making money,” he said. “The pub is also not that big inside and under COVID restrictions could only hold 28 people.
“I know things are improving in terms of COVID but there’s no certainty.
“Pubs were closing even before the pandemic.
“I bought the pub never expecting to make huge amounts of money.
“It’s had up and down years but the truth is it’s the income from the house of multiple occupation above it that has allowed it to keep afloat.
“We’d already had to close it on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesdays as there was no mid-week trade.
“We had to hope for the big events on Saturdays such as boxing to make money and hosting those seems a long way off.
“People’s habits have changed. They used to have only four channels on TV, where as now there are hundreds and people have their mobiles.
“There’s also the cost of pints from the brewery and the fact you can buy cans for much less from the supermarkets.”
