22 OCT 2026 · rts.fm editorial
Where Nightclubs Go: A Year of UK Planning Applications
We searched UK planning records for a year. 33 nightclub sites sought a new use, most often housing, and only one refusal is on record. Data and method.
Every closed nightclub leaves a paper trail. Before the building becomes flats, a gym or a supermarket extension, someone files a planning application, and that application is public. We searched that trail for a year and counted what the applications actually propose.
The short version: between 20 October 2025 and 20 October 2026 we found 33 nightclub premises in planning records where the owner asked for a different use or for demolition. Twelve of them, the largest group, would become housing, from a single dwelling to a 28-bedroom house in multiple occupation. Eight would become shops, offices or other commercial units. Only one of the 33 has a refusal on record. This is a count of applications we could find, not of closures, and the limits are set out below.
How we counted
We searched UK PlanIt, a free aggregator of council planning registers, for the words "nightclub" and "night club" in application descriptions, limited to applications with a start date between 20 October 2025 and 20 October 2026. The search returned 54 records from 42 councils in England and Wales.
We then read every description and sorted the records by hand:
- 33 premises where the application proposed a new use or demolition for a nightclub. Some premises filed twice, for example a planning application and a listed building consent for the same building, or a re-submission, so these 33 premises account for 39 records.
- 6 follow-up filings that discharge conditions or amend a permission granted earlier for a nightclub conversion. They show an earlier approval, not a new proposal, so we left them out of the counts.
- 8 records where the nightclub continues, expands or is part of a mixed entertainment use.
- 1 record that only mentioned a nightclub in a long masterplan description.
The categories describe the principal proposed use. A scheme with three shop units and 18 apartments is counted as housing, and a scheme with offices and nine flats is counted as housing too. The status column is what PlanIt records from the council register, which can lag behind the council's own site.
What the 33 applications propose
| Principal proposed use | Premises |
|---|---|
| Housing (flats, dwellings or houses in multiple occupation) | 12 |
| Shops, offices and other commercial units | 8 |
| Food and drink | 4 |
| Hotel or banqueting | 2 |
| Gym | 2 |
| Place of worship or community use | 2 |
| Self-storage | 1 |
| Demolition and mixed-use redevelopment | 1 |
| Two alternative applications for one building (a house in multiple occupation or offices) | 1 |
Housing is the most common destination, but not the majority: about a third. The rest are spread across ordinary high-street uses. The list reads like a high-street directory.
Decisions so far, according to PlanIt:
| Status | Premises |
|---|---|
| Permitted | 12 |
| Permitted with conditions | 4 |
| Undecided | 12 |
| No decision recorded | 4 |
| Rejected | 1 |
The one refusal is a proposal in Hillingdon to turn a nightclub into a banqueting suite and add a hotel. Sixteen of the 33 have a permission recorded and 12 are still undecided.
Eight cases where the nightclub stays
The search also turned up applications that point the other way. In Birmingham's Hockley, a light industrial unit is proposed to become a restaurant, bar and nightclub. In Bournemouth, the Lost nightclub applied to extend into vacant offices above it. In Southwark, a nightclub under railway arches amended a permission for a refurbishment that adds ancillary cafe space. In Leeds, a nightclub applied to vary the hours and music conditions on a rooftop smoking terrace. In Ryde, the Isle of Wight, a nightclub is proposed to become a leisure and hospitality venue with a bar and music. Plymouth lists a pre-application for turning a nightclub into an auditorium, Bath a nightclub converted to event space inside a hotel scheme, and Northampton's Corn Exchange a flexible set of entertainment uses that still includes a nightclub.
That is eight records against 33 premises seeking a different use, which fits the shape of the story but does not measure it.
The six follow-ups
Six more filings in our results do not propose anything new. They discharge conditions or amend permissions granted earlier for premises that used to be nightclubs, among them a change of use to flexible commercial space with a bar in Southwark, an 18-bed house in multiple occupation in Chorley, residential conversion in Salisbury, a single dwelling in Shoreham and student accommodation with 88 studio flats in Leeds. They are a reminder that the loss we count in any one year follows permissions granted in earlier years.
Every premises in the dataset
| Council | Premises | Proposed use | Status in PlanIt | Record |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Denbighshire | Sand Beach, 25 - 26 East Parade, Rhyl, Denbighshire, LL18 3AL | 4 self-contained flats | No decision recorded | 45/2025/0486/PF |
| North Northamptonshire | 24 Silver Street Wellingborough NN8 1AY | Mixed Class E and flats (Class C3) | Undecided | 25/02029/FUL |
| Torridge | 10 South Street Torrington Devon EX38 8HE | 1 dwelling | Permitted | 1/0068/2026/FUL |
| Carlisle | First & Second Floors, 18-24 Lonsdale Street, Carlisle,... | 5 dwellings plus flat conversions | Permitted | 26/0061 |
| Wigan | 35 - 45 King Street Wigan WN1 1DY | 3 shop units and 18 apartments | Undecided | A/26/100631/MAJOR |
| North Devon | 42 Boutport Street Barnstaple Devon EX31 1SE | 4 residential units on the first floor, 2 on the mezzanine | Undecided | 81614 |
| Mid Kent | 73 & 72A Bank Street Maidstone Kent ME14 1SN | 1 flat and 1 Class E unit | Permitted | 26/501571/FULL |
| Stoke on Trent | 14 Hillcrest Street, Hanley, Stoke-on-trent, City Of... | 28-bedroom house in multiple occupation | No decision recorded | 26/FUL/00546 |
| Wakefield | 8B King Street Wakefield WF1 2SQ | Office space and 9 one-bedroom apartments | Undecided | 26/01237/FUL |
| Erewash | 52 St Mary Street, Ilkeston, Derbyshire, DE7 5QA | Conversion to Class C3 dwellings | No decision recorded | PA/2026/0368 |
| Melton | Roadhouse Night Club 1 Park Road Melton Mowbray LE13 1TT | 8 apartments | No decision recorded | 26/00714/FUL |
| Plymouth | 24 Lockyer Street Plymouth PL1 2QW | Commercial unit, 2-bed flat and 6-bed HMO | Permitted | 26/00030/LBC (+1) |
| Carmarthenshire | 54 and 54a King Street, Carmarthen, SA31 1BD | Ground floor to retail (re-submitted in July 2026) | Permitted | PL/10264 (+1) |
| Leicester | 64-66 Humberstone Gate,Ground Floor | Extension of an adjoining supermarket | Permitted with conditions | 20251926 |
| West Suffolk | 2-3 Jubilee Walk Haverhill Suffolk CB9 8DA | Retail unit (Class E) | Permitted | DC/25/2015/FUL |
| Mansfield | 32-38 Clumber Street Mansfield Nottinghamshire NG18 1NY | Up to 22 Class E units and Class B2 floorspace | Undecided | 2026/0007/FUL |
| Rushmoor | Tiffanys 38 - 40 Grosvenor Road Aldershot Hampshire GU11 3DY | Kitchen, bathroom and tiles showroom | Undecided | 26/00257/FULPP |
| Westminster | 58 Porchester Road London W2 6ET | Flexible Class E use | Undecided | 26/04380/FULL |
| Crawley | 107 High Street, Northgate, Crawley | Offices (Class E) | Undecided | CR/2026/0416/FUL |
| Wyre | 2 Vicarage Road Poulton-Le-Fylde Lancashire FY6 7BE | Services, offices and R&D (Class E) | Undecided | 26/00641/FUL |
| Greenwich | 51-61 Hare Street, Woolwich, London, Se18 6Ne | First floor to a restaurant | Permitted | 25/3965/F |
| West Northamptonshire | Chasers New Street Daventry NN11 4BT | Restaurant and hot food takeaway | Permitted | 2026/0525/FULL |
| Kirklees | Mr Gs, 290, Bradford Road, Batley, WF17 5PW | Restaurant with takeaway | Permitted with conditions | 2026/90966 |
| Solihull | 140 High Street Solihull B91 3SX | Pub, restaurant and 26-room hotel | Permitted | PL/2026/00270/LBC (+1) |
| Bedford | 29 Mill Street Bedford Bedfordshire MK40 3EU | Hotel | Permitted | 25/02363/LBC (+1) |
| Hillingdon | Former Regal Cinema 233 High Street Uxbridge Ub8 1Ld | Banqueting suite and hotel | Rejected | 3638/APP/2026/1538 |
| Powys | The Regent Centre, The Steam Mill Broad Street Newtown... | Gymnasium | Permitted | 25/1765/LBC (+1) |
| Watford | 127 The Parade High Street Watford WD17 1NA | Gym (Class E(d)) | Permitted with conditions | 26/00059/FUL |
| North Northamptonshire | Abacus 19 Dalkeith Place Kettering NN16 0BS | Place of worship | Permitted | 25/01927/FUL |
| West Lindsey | The State Club 23-25 Church Street Gainsborough Dn21 2Jj | Place of worship and community use | Undecided | 151371 |
| Preston | Lowthian House , Market Street, Preston, PR1 2ES | Self-storage facility | Permitted with conditions | 06/2025/1297 |
| Hull | Demolition Site 31 - 53 Ferensway Kingston Upon Hull | Mixed-use scheme after demolition (outline) | Undecided | 26/00047/OUT |
| Warwick | 24 Russell Street, Leamington Spa, CV32 5QB | Seven-bedroom HMO, or offices (two applications) | Undecided | W/26/1208 (+1) |
References link to the UK PlanIt record, which links on to the council's own register.
What this does not tell you
- It is a floor, not a total. PlanIt depends on scraping each council's register, and a search on the words "nightclub" or "night club" misses applications that call the premises a bar, a venue or a club. Our count is likely lower than the real number.
- It is not a count of closures. Many descriptions call the building a former or vacant nightclub, so the paperwork often follows the closing, not the other way round.
- "Nightclub" is broad. The word covers student nights, pop clubs and late bars, not only underground dance venues. We did not try to separate them.
- A permission is not a conversion. Plenty of approved changes of use are never carried out, and some of the premises also have a licence history that this data does not show.
- We classified by description. Applications are often short. If you find one we have classified wrongly, tell us through the contact details on our about page and we will correct the table.
What it means for people who go out
Two points stand out. First, the process that turns a club into flats is public and slow, and each of the 12 open applications has a comment window. Councils usually ask for comments within a few weeks of registering an application. The Gainsborough application, which would turn a night club into a place of worship, has a comment deadline of 9 November 2026 according to PlanIt. Second, the pattern in this data is conversion by property economics, not by licensing authorities shutting clubs down. We tested the licensing side separately in our analysis of the Home Office licensing statistics, and it points the same way: licences are not disappearing, buildings are.
For the infrastructure version of the same problem, see our report on Digbeth's clubs and the Midlands Rail Hub. For closures across Europe, the club closures tracker collects individual cases, and why people go out less looks at the demand side.
quick wins
- Between 20 October 2025 and 20 October 2026 we found 33 nightclub premises in UK planning records where the owner sought a different use or demolition (39 filings in 32 councils).
- Housing is the most common destination (12 of 33), then shops, offices and other commercial units (8), food and drink (4), hotels or banqueting (2), gyms (2) and places of worship (2).
- Status per PlanIt: 16 permitted, 12 undecided, 4 with no decision recorded, 1 rejected (Hillingdon).
- Eight further records involve a nightclub that stays, expands or becomes part of an entertainment use.
- This is a floor, not a total: it counts applications found through a text search of PlanIt, not closures.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many UK nightclubs applied for a change of use in the past year?
We found 33 nightclub premises in planning records that applied for a different use or demolition between 20 October 2025 and 20 October 2026, filed through 39 applications in 32 councils. This is a count of what a text search of UK PlanIt found, so the real number is likely higher.
What do old nightclubs become?
Most often housing: 12 of the 33 premises, ranging from one dwelling to a 28-bedroom house in multiple occupation. Shops, offices and other commercial units account for 8, food and drink 4, hotel or banqueting 2, gyms 2, places of worship 2, self-storage 1 and a demolition scheme 1.
Do councils often refuse these applications?
Not in our data. Of the 33 premises, 16 have a permission recorded, 12 are undecided, 4 have no decision recorded and one, in Hillingdon, was rejected.
Does a planning application mean a club has closed?
Not necessarily. Many descriptions call the building a former or vacant nightclub, but the application shows what the owner wants to do with the building, not when the club closed.
Where did the data come from?
From UK PlanIt (planit.org.uk), which collects planning applications from council registers, searched for the words "nightclub" and "night club" in application descriptions for a start date between 20 October 2025 and 20 October 2026. We classified each record by hand and link every premises to its PlanIt record.
How can I comment on a planning application near me?
Each council's planning register lists open applications and the date by which comments are due. Search the council's website or UK PlanIt by postcode, or by the reference number in our table.