One of Britain’s leading pub chains, JD Wetherspoons, wants to pump more than £1 million into a Llandrindod Wells venue to create the first Wetherspoons pub in Powys.
The company is in negotiations with the owners of the Hampton Hotel to purchase the 136-year-old building and have submitted a planning application to remodel the inside.
Their plans would see 25 new full and part-time jobs being created to add to seven existing positions.
The negotiations are at a fairly advanced stage with the contracts already with the parties’ solicitors, Wetherspoons spokesman said. If all goes according to plan, they plan to retain the Hampton as a pub and hotel, and would close it immediately after gaining permission for work to start. They would expect to re-open next year.
Plans to remodel the venue have already been submitted to Powys County Council. The most significant changes would be seen on the ground floor where the current layout of many interconnected individual rooms would be opened up with existing openings being widened and new openings being formed, to make better use of space and improve flow around the building.
The current kitchen would be too small for Wetherspoons so they plan to relocate it to the other side of the building and to make more use of the existing beer garden. It is proposed to move the cellar into the rear toilet block.
The outdoor eating area would be fenced off and a fixed ‘jumbrella’ is proposed to provide a smoking shelter.
On the first floor, the layout will remain as now, except for four bedrooms which will be taken out to provide space for new toilets. The second floor and basement layouts would remain as at present.
A spokesman for Wetherspoons said the 29-bedroom hotel came to their attention as they looked for properties in the town.
“We are keen to purchase it and the owners are keen to sell it. The contracts are with solicitors but they have not been exchanged yet.
“We have been looking in the town for a while and our intention would be to spend time and in excess of £1 million to redevelop the site and re-open it as a pub/hotel.
“It will hopefully be very, very good for the town that the building’s use will remain the same and there will be a lot of investment in it.
“Once we have planning permission we like to get on with the work straight away and the hotel will be shut as it goes on and will re-open probably in 2009.”
The Hampton Hotel’s current owner Darren Owen said Wetherspoons were hoping to buy the venue and the offer was subject to planning permission being gained.
He said he thought their plans sounded good and it would be good for the town.
Darren has owned the Hampton for about two years.
“They (Wetherspoons) were looking for places in Llandrindod Wells and I rang them and asked them if they would be interested in the Hampton, and they had a look at it and liked it,” he told the Journal.
“I have done a lot of work here, the roof has been done and the windows and the bedrooms,” he added.
Darren also owns the White Hart and leases the White Horse in Builth Wells, and if the sale goes through he plans to concentrate on those pubs.
Wetherspoons pubs are renowned for serving food all day long, and being music-free pubs with just a couple of televisions used for major occasions, which are often muted with subtitles.
They stock casked and conditioned beers, a full range of wines and spirits and try and use and promote local produce.
Their pubs are all wheelchair accessible and contain specially adapted toilets and facilities.
JD Wetherspoons was started in 1979 by 24-year-old law student Tim Martin. Fed up with a lack of good quality pubs where he lived, he bought a pub in North London.
He named it Wetherspoons after one of his teachers and the JD part of the name came from a character in the Dukes of Hazzard, JD ‘Boss’ Hogg.
The chain now has 696 pubs across the UK offering a friendly and comfortable drinking atmosphere. Their food menus offer a mix of traditional British meals, along with popular and innovative international dishes.
The Hampton Hotel was built in or around 1872 as holiday apartments.
Sometime between 1912 and 1918 it was converted to a hotel and that use has continued until the present day.
