Reading nightclub After Dark saved from second demolition plan

The After Dark Club in Reading has been running since the 1980s

A nightclub has been saved for a second time after a planning application to replace the venue with flats was withdrawn at the last minute.

The After Dark club in Reading has hosted music nights since the 1980s and hosted bands including Radiohead, Shed Seven and Supergrass.

The owners re-submitted plans for the London Street venue after being knocked back in 2016.

Council officers had called the plans "detrimental" to the area.

KK Property Investments, set up by the club's owners, want to replace the venue with two blocks of six flats.

But planning officers described the proposal as a "cramped and visually dominant overdevelopment of the site" that "failed to provide a suitable standard of residential accommodation".

The After Dark is situated through an alleyway on London Street

The plans were withdrawn by KK Property Investments hours before they were due to be considered at a committee meeting on Wednesday night.

The club's current manager Zahid Khan told the BBC: "Our sole aim is to save the After Dark by making it stand on its own two feet and making it prosperous and actually relevant to the whole community of Reading and beyond.

"We need support from everyone to do this as the club cannot exist without us and people taking responsibility to make it a success.

"The club needs to be strong to ward off any and all plans for redevelopment."

The venue sits between two Grade II-listed buildings within the London Street conservation area.