New pub plan to jazz up old music venue

PUB tycoon Stefan King's group has announced plans to revive another long-established Edinburgh pub - but most of it will make way for an estate agent.

• Eighty Queen Street is set to be given a new lease of life by pub tycoon Stefan King

The IONApub Partnership - part of King's expanding G1 Group, which took over a raft of well-known Festival Group bars last week - has bought Eighty Queen Street, the bar that used to be famous for live jazz music.

Under new plans for the site, the ground floor will be separated from the lower ground floor and is expected to become a Knight Frank estate agent showroom.

The bar has always had two entrances - one on the corner of North Charlotte Street and the other further round on Queen Street. But the new pub will now only be accessed from the Queen Street entrance, which leads on to a staircase down to the cellar bar.

IONApub is the leased bar part of the G1 Group and talks are taking place with a licensee who is interested in taking over the new pub unit. Options include a live sport bar or a live music "cellar" bar.

Elaine Douglas, a business development manager at G1 Group, said: "We are separating the building in two and leasing the street level to a non-licensed retailer, with only the bottom area being licensed.

"There will be no change to the building itself because it is listed and, externally, it will be largely the same as it is. It will get a lick of paint, in a style that is suited to a B-listed building, but that is it."

An application has been lodged with the city's licensing board for a change of the existing conditions for the site, with TV sport, tastings and gaming to be added to the existing activities already permitted within the premises.

On IONA's website it says that the new basement bar "could easily be re-established as Edinburgh's new music venue", or styled into a cocktail/evening venue. It also says there is "room to offer sports focus and develop a vibrant weekend trade".

Ms Douglas said: "We are part of the G1 Group and we do a lot of different styles of bars, such as Ghillie Dhu, so we are open to ideas."

The Eighty Queen Street bar and restaurant opened in 2001 but closed in October 2008 when licensee Dario Pacifici said he could not cope with rising rates and bills at the same time as slowing consumer spending.

London Town Pub Company took over managing the pub for owner Punch Taverns in July 2009 but fell into administration in February 2010. The bar has since been snapped up by the IONApub group.

Pub and restaurant expert Barry McNeil, from agent Christie & Co, said: "I think this is G1 looking cleverly at how to make money with its asset and, given its location, this would seem to be a fairly logical move.

"People that know the Edinburgh bar scene will be aware of Eighty Queen Street and I'm sure it could become popular again."