Wetherspoons ‘as keen as ever’ to build hotel at Aberdeen’s Archibald Simpson

A major pub chain has said it is as “keen as ever” to add a hotel to an historic Granite City building- and intends to submit fresh plans.

The Archibald Simpson on Union Street, run by JD Wetherspoon, is named after its renowned designer, who is as Aberdeen’s most famous architect.

The firm is planning to transform the first and second floors into a 29-bedroom hotel with a beer garden.

However, while planning permission was approved, the city council refused to grant listed building consent for the 19th-century structure.

But now, pub bosses have confirmed they will submit a fresh application for the requisite consent on the former North of Scotland bank building.

Wetherspoon spokesman Eddie Gershon said: “We are as keen as ever to open a hotel at the Archibald Simpson in Aberdeen.

“We have amended our plans, so the hotel will have 29 bedrooms, two fewer than originally stated, following talks with the council.”

The local authority previously said when refusing the consent that the plans would result in the loss of historically important rooms.