Cape Hill's De Vibez Lounge asks for permission to open until 4am at weekends

Christian Barnett

23 April 2024 at 9:12 am·2-min read

De Vibez Lounge opened in the former Wetherspoons on the corner of Cape Hill and Waterloo Road in Cape Hill, Smethwick -Credit:Google Maps

A new restaurant has asked for permission to open until 4am at weekends. De Vibez Lounge in Cape Hill, Smethwick, has asked Sandwell Council to extend its opening hours as well as sell alcohol and play music until the early hours.

The African restaurant opened in the former Sampson Lloyd pub in December last year. The restaurant has applied for a late-night licence to open until 4am at weekends. The application also asks for permission to sell alcohol between 11am and 11.30pm from Monday to Thursday and 11am and 11.30pm every Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

The venue also wants to play recorded music between 11am and midnight on weekdays and 11am and 4am at the weekend. The proposed opening hours are 11am to midnight between Monday and Thursday and 11am to 4am from Friday to Sunday.

The former Wetherspoon’s pub on the corner of Cape Hill and Waterloo Road had sat empty for several years after the budget chain left in 2014. The grade II listed building dates back to the early 1900s and was formerly a Lloyd’s bank.

Wetherspoons was given permission to convert the former bank into a pub way back in 1999. The pub closed in 2014 and stayed empty for a number of years before plans to re-open the listed building as a new restaurant, office and commercial space as well as flats were revealed in 2018. Sandwell Council approved plans for three units and five flats several months later.

The council had served the owners of the grade II listed building with an enforcement notice after several upper-floor windows were replaced without planning permission. The council said it had ‘serious’ concerns about the unauthorised work – with the owners claiming the windows were damaged and rotting – but the plans were approved anyway.

Another planning application asking for permission to convert a former first-floor kitchen into a new flat was also approved in 2020. Making the entire floor residential increased the number of flats to six, according to the application.

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