JD Wetherspoon plans to invest £4 million on revamping a former nightclub in Glasgow.

The UK-wide pub chain is set to develop the former Waverley Tea Rooms and Tusk nightclub in the Shawlands area of the city. 

The A-listed building, which was owned by G1 Group, now the Scotsman Group, has been empty since 2017. It previously housed the Waverley Picture House, which opened back in 1922.

Plans for a Wetherspoons on the site were approved by Glasgow City Council back in 2020.

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On Friday, JD Wetherspoon secured permission to alter the premises licence for the building.

Glasgow’s Licensing Board heard how the firm will invest £4 million in revamping the old building - with the new venue set to employ 60 to 70 staff once open. 

Archie MacIver, the licensing lawyer representing Wetherspoons, said the licence variation would “take out the nightclub-related elements and adapt it into more of a public house type licence in the traditional Wetherspoon style”.

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The firm removed live entertainment from the licence and brought forward closing time to midnight. The pub would have a total capacity of 680 persons.

Mr MacIver said: “The applicants don’t need any introduction, they have a number of premises within your honours’ jurisdiction. Until recently they had one within this locality, the Sir John Stirling Maxwell in Shawlands Arcade.

“These premises closed and the new site, which is the purpose of this application, was acquired some time back. The premises that closed was actually the second Wetherspoons in Glasgow and it celebrated its 25th anniversary just before it closed.”

He added the £4m redevelopment of the venue would “bring back a very handsome building to the quality it was in days gone by”.

JD Wetherspoon previously operated a pub on nearby Kilmarnock Road, the Sir John Stirling Maxwell, which closed earlier this year. 

The Sir John Stirling Maxwell pub was part of Shawlands Arcade, which is set to be redeveloped, with planning permission in principle granted in March.

No date has been provided for when the revamp work will begin or when the pub will open.