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Thackeray Estates’ plans to deliver a Jurys Inn hotel and aparthotel in Reading’s town centre has been approved by Reading Borough Council’s planning committee.
The approved development will include a new 163-bed hotel which will include 104 aparthotel rooms. There will also be a courtyard and shopping area on the corner of Queen Victoria Street and Friar Street.
The Jurys Inn brand will reportedly bring back The Bugle pub located in the area of the development, following its closure in October 2021. This comes as the council is said to have given the pub protected status in July of this year, with Thackeray agreeing to incorporate it into the hotel building.
It is reported that the apart-hotel rooms will have a maximum occupancy time of three months to prevent them from becoming “de facto permanent residences”.
Due to the council’s approval, Revolución de Cuba and the Eyesite Opticians will have to vacate to make way for the hotel to be built. However, WHSmith will remain where it is with a smaller store, though what will happen to Reading Food and Wine, Timpson and the beauticians on the site’s ground floor is yet to be determined.
Cllr Karen Rowland said: “As a town centre ward with Cllr Tony Page, I know that we both welcome the proposal and thank Thackeray Estates for bringing this forward, and giving this town, that’s a city in all but name, something that we really deserve. This is the kind of development that really can bring a site into existence that Reading deserves.”
Cllr Andrew Hornsby-Smith said: “This is an application that really needs to be supported. The key words planning officer Jonathan Markwell has used are ‘richness and quality’. I thoroughly endorse that.
“This brings together a number of underused and unused spaces and develops them in a sympathetic way.”
He continued: “The way they’ve used The Bugle is very sympathetic, it’s exciting, it creates an atrium, the heritage aspect of that has been retained in a very creative way and I welcome that. It also meets Reading’s hotel needs. This is a major investment and I look forward to it.”
