City's new £10m venues aim to revitalise nightlife

May 2 2008 by Barry Ellams, Chester Chronicle

CHESTER is about to spring back into life at night thanks to a £10m trio of investments – just in time for the city’s busiest week of the year.

The £2.6m luxury nightclub Cruise, billed as Britain’s first ‘boutique nightclub’, has opened in time for the May race meeting next week.

Dance floor and bar network Cruise, which has a capacity for 1,550 people, joins £3.25m hotel/restaurant and bar Oddfellows on Bridge Street in a bid to provide social venues for younger people.

A £3.4m investment into the Chester Racecourse pavilion and restaurant 1539 will contribute to the evening economy with conferencing and dining.

The launch of Cruise tomorrow has attracted interest from Chester businesses with firms such as Elegant Resorts, Porsche, Marks and Spencer, MBNA, monseysupermarket.com and Boodle and Dunthorne attending VIP nights this week and making future reservations.

The club already has 10,500 members with two new recruits signing up every minute.

Operations director Nick Harding said: “It’s just phenomenal. It’s quite overwhelming really, we didn’t expect this level of interest.

“We will work closely with managers and directors of shops, restaurants, hotels and the council. We want Chester to be successful and to get the right people enjoying a quality evening in Chester.”

The city’s reputation as a night-time destination plummeted in 2002 when The Duke of Westminster announced his daughters Lady Tamara and Lady Edwina preferred to socialise in Liverpool or Ellesmere Port.

Nick Harding believes new investments signal dramatic progress: “Oddfellows and Cruise, between the two of us, should tick the boxes of creating a fantastic night out in Chester.

“I would like to invite The Duke of Westminster and his family to come to Cruise. I would love to give them a tour round.”

With uncertainty surrounding the proposed new performing arts centre and what the future may hold for the old Odeon Cinema site, concern has been growing as to what can fill Chester’s cultural void.

But Mr Harding remains upbeat, saying: “The other parts of the jigsaw – a theatre and a cinema – will hopefully fall into place.”