Brighton restaurant to become flats after closing for good

A restaurant in Brighton has closed for good and is to be turned into flats if planning permission is granted by Brighton and Hove City Council.

Plans have been submitted to the council for the conversion of the Ginger Dog, part of the Gingerman group of restaurants, and previously listed in a Michelin guide.

The plans include adding a mansard roof extension, creating a living space in the loft of the four-storey building, in College Place, on the corner of Clarendon Place, in Kemp Town.

The building would contain five flats – four of them would have two bedrooms, suitable for families, according to the plans, while the other would be a one-bed flat.

None of the flats would be classed as “affordable” but the conversion, if approved, could result in a payment of £207,750 to the council to be used for affordable housing elsewhere.

Gingerman, which is run by Ben McKellar, 48, and his wife Pam, 44, said: “Most recently the ground floor and the first floor has operated as a restaurant with an ancillary bar area.

“The spacious lower ground floor has been used by the restaurant solely for storage. The first floor contains the kitchen and private dining room. The second floor is both office and storage space.

“The business has been unable to reopen post pandemic. There are numerous and varied alternative restaurants and food vendors in the vicinity, in addition to numerous public houses.

“The site is located in a predominately residential area set back from the identified local shopping centre of St George’s Road.”

The Ginger Dog originally opened in 2010, having previously been known as the Wellington pub, but it closed last December, having “only opened intermittently since the beginning of the pandemic”.

It remained closed when the other Gingerman premises reopened in April and May this year as the coronavirus pandemic restrictions were relaxed.

The planning application is due to be decided by Tuesday 4 January.