Glasgow Southside set for new Wetherspoons pub after licence change

A new Wetherspoons has moved a step closer to opening in Glasgow after licence changes were approved for a Shawlands venue. The pub chain secured permission to alter the premises licence for a former nightclub on Moss Side Road.

JD Wetherspoon Ltd is planning to replace its pub on Kilmarnock Road, the Sir John Stirling Maxwell, which closed earlier this year, with new Shawlands premises. It is set to develop the former Waverley Tea Rooms and Tusk nightclub — but bosses have yet to confirm when work will begin or when the pub will open. However, on Friday, Glasgow’s Licensing Board heard how the firm will invest £4m in revamping the old building and 60 to 70 staff are expected to be employed.

Archie MacIver, the licensing lawyer representing Wetherspoons, said the licence variation would “take out the nightclub related elements and adapt it into more of a public house type licence in the traditional Wetherspoon style”.

The firm removed live entertainment from the licence and brought forward closing time to midnight. The pub would have a total capacity of 680 persons. Mr MacIver said: “The applicants don’t need any introduction, they have a number of premises within your honours’ jurisdiction. Until recently they had one within this locality, the Sir John Stirling Maxwell in Shawlands Arcade.

“These premises closed and the new site, which is the purpose of this application, was acquired some time back. The premises that closed were actually the second Wetherspoons in Glasgow and it celebrated its 25th anniversary just before it closed.”

He added the £4m redevelopment of the Moss Side Road venue would “bring back a very handsome building to the quality it was in days gone by.”

The Sir John Stirling Maxwell pub was part of Shawlands Arcade, which is set to be redeveloped, with planning permission in principle granted in March. The A-listed building on Moss Side Road, which was owned by G1 Group, now the Scotsman Group, has been empty since 2017. It previously housed the Waverley Picture House, which opened in 1922. Plans for a Wetherspoons on the site were approved by Glasgow City Council in 2020.