A trio of Belfast’s most popular bars are to receive entertainment licences enabling them to open until 2am.
Belfast City Council has approved new licences for the Jeggy Nettle on Stranmillis Road, The Spaniard in Skipper Street in the Cathedral Quarter, and the nearby Muriels at Church Lane.
The current licences for the venues, all owned by JK Pubs Ltd, allow opening to 1am, except for the Jeggy Nettle on Sundays, which allows opening until midnight.
A council report said: “The licensee has stated that they would like the variation to extend the permitted hours until 2am as the licensee feels that the three premises are an integral part of Belfast’s nightlife, and that an increase in operating hours will allow them to compete within the sector, which is essential for the commercial success of the businesses.”
No objections to the change were submitted to the council, and no noise complaints relating to any of the venues has been received in the last 12 months.
Balmoral Alliance Councillor, Tara Brooks said at the council’s Licensing Committee: “I have no problem with the Spaniard and Muriel’s because they are in the middle of a commercial cluster and there are no residential neighbours at all. The Jeggy Nettle doesn’t actually give me any concerns, and there haven’t been noise complaints, but we need to probe that further.”
Janine Kane of JK Pubs told the committee the Stranmillis venue would only be open until 2am at weekends.
“Our use of the licence will be on Fridays and Saturdays, it is not for seven days of the week, and we obviously understand there are residents in the area,” he said.
“The Friday and the Saturday is to avail of it, if it is required to be competitive.”
She added: “At the moment, in terms of noise abatement we already have a policy in place to ensure we manage noise coming from the venue. We have a small beer garden to the front of the (Jeggy Nettle), with one external speaker into that area which gets turned off at 11pm.
She added: “We encourage customers not to stand outside the bar (after closing) and move on as much as possible, whether that is phoning taxis for them or a soft close encouraging them to move on from 11pm onwards.”
The first substantial change to the north’s licencing laws came into force in 2021, allowing venues to open later than 1am.
Earlier this year, Commercial Inns Ltd, which owns popular bars in the Cathedral Quarter including the Duke of York, announced plans to close their pubs at midnight or earlier, in a bid to prevent the area becoming like Dublin’s Temple Bar.
