Plans have been revealed for a new bar that will replace violence hotspot Matchbox this summer.
The venue will be called Neighbourhood and will include a roof terrace, games like shuffle-board and digital beer pong, live music and sport and all-day dining.
Big Smoke Brew Co, who will run the bar, boast the Friar Street venue will have “the biggest beer range in Reading” as well as selling small batch spirits.
The company runs a brewery, gin distillery and seven other similar craft bars in the UK.
Why did Matchbox close?
Greene King, the venue’s licence holder, voluntarily closed the bar after a fight broke out on December 7 inside the venue and spilled out onto the street.
Matchbox had become a hotspot for assaults, arrests and road closures in the last few years.
This included a man who died outside the club in April after being punched and hitting his head on the floor.
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The huge chain were brought before Reading Borough Council’s (RBC) licensing committee in January, with the possibility it could lose its licence at the Friar Street venue.
Greene King said it had already planned to transform Matchbox into a craft bar run by Big Smoke Brew Co prior to the fight on December 7.
The council agreed to allow the owners to keep the licence and re-open the venue as a craft beer and gin bar instead.
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Licensing chairman Deborah Edwards warned Greene King and Big Smoke Brew Co to “behave.”
The bar agreed to reduced opening times of 8am-12am (Sunday-Wednesday) and 8am-12.30am (Thursday-Saturday), with drinking stopping half an hour before.
External promoters will no longer be able to run events at the venue.
What is happening now?
The shopfront has been redesigned, advertising plans for the site, with an opening date of summer 2020 mooted.
Greene King and Big Smoke Brew are investing £500,000 into the rebrand and redesign.
The venue will include 22 feet shuffle-boards and pong connect - a beer pong simulator - but plans for “cutting edge” electronic darts similar to ‘Flight Club’ in London, announced at the licensing meeting last month, are no longer mentioned.
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