Starbucks plan for new London Road cafe
The old Bamboo House Chinese restaurant in London Road in Brighton
Starbucks is planning to open a new cafe on London Road where a Chinese restaurant closed down after zero star ratings.
Cobra Coffee, which runs Starbucks branches in the UK including the cafe in St James’s Street, has applied for a change of use for 9 London Road from restaurant to cafe.
The unit was previously occupied by Bamboo House, which closed in the summer of 2018, a year after it received a zero star rating from Brighton and Hove City Council hygiene inspectors.
The unit was briefly earmarked as a new location for the Boots Pharmacy when the store opposite closed for redevelopment, but those plans fell through.
The application, which was registered last week, also asks for permission to alter the shop front to replace the single glazed floor to ceiling window with aluminium framed bi-fold doors and a branded canvas barrier rail.
A previous planning application for a new Starbucks in Brighton caused months of controversy when the US chain opened despite permission being refused.
Weekly protests were held outside the cafe in St James’s Street after it opened in May 2008 in opposition to St James’s Street becoming part of “clone town Britain”.
The application was eventually approved on appeal.
Starbucks was approached for comment.
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