Music and booze bid for new Lightwoods House venue featuring MasterChef winner

The new venue taking over a former tearoom at an historic Black Country park has applied for an alcohol and music licence. The owners of Birmingham-based independent bar 1000 Trades will be opening a new venue at Lightwoods House in Lightwood Parks, Bearwood, Smethwick.

An application asking for permission to play live and recorded music and sell alcohol at the new venture, called 1000 Trades on the Park, from 8am to 11pm every day has now been submitted to Sandwell Council. The proposed opening hours are 8am to 11.45pm.

Jewellery Quarter bar and restaurant 1000 Trades revealed it was behind the new venue opening at the listed Lightwoods House, on the border of Smethwick and Birmingham, earlier this year. The menu at 1000 Trades on the Park will be put together by MasterChef: The Professionals winner and Birmingham-born chef Dan Lee.

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The announcement from 1000 Trades in February promised a more child and family-friendly venue, a daytime cafe with locally-made treats and an “evolving posh pub food menu.” Summer barbecues, ice cream, craft beers and natural wine, Sunday roasts and hot sandwiches would also be on offer in the new venue, said 1000 Trades.

The new restaurant will open in the former tearoom at the council-owned building which has been empty since last January. The owners of Jonathans In The Park announced at the start of last year they would be leaving Lightwoods House after the tearoom’s lease had not been renewed.

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In an announcement to customers on Facebook, brothers and owners Paul and John Havelin said their bid to extend the lease for the popular tearoom, which had been based in Lightwoods House since 2017, had been rejected by Sandwell Council.

Sandwell Council took over the park in 2010. Five years later it was revealed the decaying building would be transformed through a £5.5m makeover with the restoration paid for by Sandwell taxpayers and using lottery funding.

At the same time the Havelin brothers were announcing the closure of Jonathans In The Park, Sandwell Council revealed that £220,000 was being spent to improve the park’s skate and play areas, Shakespeare Gardena and build new wedding facilities in a bid to put the council-owned building on the map as a popular venue choice for couples.

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