Shops and flats plan for social club site approved
BBCA former working men's club is to be turned into shops and flats.
Sunderland City Council approved an application for the Ryhope Working Men's Club site, known locally as Ryhope Top Club.
It had been open for more than a century but closed last summer following dwindling attendance.
Plans to convert the site into four ground floor retail units, four two-bed apartments and one studio apartment were approved on Thursday.
The social club opened in the Sunderland village in 1903, and was especially popular among its mining community.
Plans were submitted by BJL Property Services Ltd, who noted the building had "deteriorated significantly" and added the application represented a "sustainable reuse" of the vacant site.
A supporting statement from the applicant said the cost of refurbishing the property so it could reopen as a pub, club, or community venue was "economically prohibitive", according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.
Council planners deemed the residential use acceptable and raised no concerns about ecology or highway and pedestrian safety, with five parking spaces planned to serve the new development.
Plans were approved on 30 April by the Labour-led council.
