JDW opens pub with nightclub hours

Managed operator JD Wetherspoon re-opened the former Blu Bambu nigtclub in Sunderland yesterday after a £1.2m investment — and is believed to have the longest licensing hours in the estate.

The new pub will be named the Cooper Rose, after a Victorian vaccination needle, and have a capacity of nearly 1,000.

It's the company's third pub in Sunderland — it runs the Lambton Worm pub, in Low Row, and the William Jameson, in Fawcett Street.

The new site will be branded as a Lloyds No 1. "It's a Wetherspoons during the daytime," said manager Nik Chapman.

"Then from about nine or 10pm we almost turn it into a nightclub."

The venue is licensed from 8am every day, until 1am on Wednesdays; 2am on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays; 3am Mondays; and 4am Fridays and Saturdays.

The Cooper Rose building used to house Durham Book Centre, before it was turned into Beach nightclub in 2001.

It underwent a million pound refit in 2006 and was re-named Blu Bambu.