From this week’s Galway City Tribune – British pub chain JD Wetherspoon has drawn up plans for a €2.5 million overhaul of the former Carbon nightclub on Eglinton Street in Galway – creating up to 70 jobs,

Plans for the ‘The Three Red Sails’ – a bar and restaurant over two floors – were submitted to City Hall last week – and the company said NUI Galway will provide a market for it.

“It is a short 500 metres from NUIG. It’s significant to note that there are 18,605 students in the college as well, which provides a market for the proposed development,” the planning application reads.

Wetherspoon has moved to reassure local residents that its ‘no music’ policy will be in force and “large groups in fancy dress” will not be permitted if it is given the go ahead by Galway City Council.

The company operates more than 860 pubs – including eight in Dublin, Cork and Carlow – and said it will seek “to create long-term relationships with local suppliers” for its all-day food menu.

The plans for the former nightclub premises – which Wetherspoon purchased in 2019 – involve demolition and refurbishment works on the ground floor and an extension at first floor level to provide a roof terrace and beer garden. A ground floor terrace already exists and will be slightly extended.

Drawings indicate seating for around 220 people on the ground floor and 100 people on the first floor (including 50 in the roof garden).

The proposed trading hours are 8am-11.30pm Monday to Thursday; 8am-12.30am Friday and Saturday and 8am to 11pm Sunday and the company said these reduced hours would be a “far less intense use” than the previous nightclub.

(Image: how the new pub would look)

This is a shortened preview version of this article. To read the rest of this story, see the August 5 edition of the Galway City Tribune. You can buy a digital edition HERE.