University buys student haunt Jabez Clegg
LEGENDARY Manchester student bar Jabez Clegg has been bought by Manchester University which might incorporate it into a new biomedical campus.
The university exchanged contracts this week and expects to complete on Monday, buying the Portsmouth Street site from Hale Leisure which also operates the Thirsty Scholar off Oxford Road and Joshua Brooks on Charles Street.
Hale, which had secured planning permission for a 80-bed student block on part of the site, was asking around £3m, although the sale price has not been disclosed.
Agent Jeremy Collins of Manchester-based Jenics described bidding as “fierce” with the university being chosen ahead of interest from the Far East and the Middle East.
He said: “Investors were keen to secure a prime student development site in the city and where future planning approvals are likely to be, at best, scarce.”
The main building is listed due to its association with the adjacent Holy Name Church which means it will have to be preserved and incorporated into any future development.
A spokesman for the university said: “We’re not 100% sure what we’ll do with the site yet, but it’s likely it will be part of a new biomedical campus which is part of our campus masterplan.”
The university unveiled a 10-year, £1bn programme of campus improvements last year. The biomedical campus is part of the £300m second phase which also includes refurbishments in the schools of computer science, earth, atmospheric and environmental sciences, mathematics and chemistry. Work will start in 2018 and last for four years.
The sale of the pub led to the closure of the bar on Monday and the loss of 22 jobs. Jabez Clegg, like Joshua Brooks, takes its name from Isabella Banks’ 1876 novel The Manchester Man.
