Skip to content

New venue at the Arches changes licence to remove dance events

News imageSNS The inside of a bar and events space, with various tables and chairs set up, with the ceiling forming an arch over them SNS
In recent years the Arches club became Platform, an events and restaurant space

The company behind a £2.5m plan to convert the former site of one of Scotland's most famous nightclubs into a bowling and games bar has secured licence changes to remove dance events.

Operating under the Lane 7 brand, the new bar is taking over Platform on Argyle Street in Glasgow - the events space formerly occupied by the popular Arches venue.

It controversially went into administration in 2015 after a midnight closing time was imposed by Glasgow's licensing board, following police complaints about drug abuse and disorder.

The new owners run a similar premises, Level X, in the city's St Enoch Centre, and have over 20 Lane 7 venues, including bars in Aberdeen and Edinburgh.

Plans for the space include bowling alleys as well as arcade games and a range of activities like augmented darts, shuffleboard, ping pong and mini-golf.

Glasgow's licensing board approved an application from the owners — Its All Food Group Ltd — to make changes to the venue's premises licence on Friday to support the new operation.

They include the "removal of the reference to club style dance events" and allowing children to access the venue until 20:00, rather than 21:00.

Audrey Junner, the licensing lawyer representing the firm, said the night time economy was moving towards entertainment-based premises instead of clubs.

She said: "Alcohol is very much ancillary to that entertainment in these types of venues. The Lane 7 concept is a perfect example of that type of operation.

"I think importantly for Glasgow it means the preservation of a historic entertainment space in the heart of the city."

She added the owners are "very experienced at running this type of premises across the country" and about 40 members of staff would be hired for the plan.

Platform, sitting in the railway arches underneath Glasgow Central station, was a large bar, events and restaurant space.

It had previously been home to the Arches, a much-loved nightclub which many DJs and Glaswegians fondly remember to this day.

Story by Local Democracy reporter Drew Sandelands.