Preston nightclub could become storage facility
The building on Market Street operated for more than 55 years
A Preston nightclub, which operated in various forms for more than 55 years, looks to have fallen silent for good.
The venue, most recently trading as Switch, closed its doors a year ago – and plans have now been lodged to turn part of the Market Street building into a storage facility.
An application submitted to Preston City Council reveals it has not been possible to find a new operator for the club.
The nightspot, within Lowthian House in the city centre, opened as Squires and Snooty’s back in 1967. It later evolved into Squires and Quincy’s, before becoming plain Squires – during what was probably its most iconic era – from 1979.
Later years saw reincarnations of the two-room venue as New York New York and, after a £250,000 revamp, Cameo and Vinyl in 2014.
The venue’s rebirth as Switch – when a third room was added – came in 2017 after another near 12-month hiatus during which the building had been bereft of revellers.
However, it seems unlikely that the comeback club – which caused controversy in the summer of 2020 after being repurposed as a bar to swerve Covid rules that were keeping clubs closed at the time – will be welcoming a new generation of memory-makers now that a bid has been made to turn it into something far more mundane.
According to documents filed with town hall planners, the conversion of the basement and a small part of the ground floor into storage space is necessary in order to ensure the site “does not become derelict and a target for antisocial behaviour”.
A total of 85 ‘Kuboid’ storage units would be provided under the plans, ranging in size from 16 to 200 square feet. The business would operate in a “self-access capacity, with users having their own keys to unlock the standard slide lock, which will maintain safety”, a planning statement on behalf of applicant Ringway Ltd. explains.
It suggests that the proposed new use would benefit local businesses, the student population of the University of Lancashire and city residents.
The document states that there would be “no impact” upon people living in the adjoining Lime House residential block, because the living space does not begin until the second floor.