On Monday I had a lovely lunch with a friend at The Cosy Club, Nottingham. She’d asked me to pick the venue and I chose here because I’ve always been fascinated by this building which is just around the corner from the Market Square in the centre of Nottingham. The Cosy Club, a chain of restaurants, moved in at the beginning of 2020, and then promptly had to close because of COVID. However they’ve now reopened and seem to be doing very well judging by how busy it was (we managed to get a table in the bar area without booking, but absolutely book in advance if there’s a larger group and at dinner time). Prior to this the building had been vacant for nearly 20 years and as you’ll see they’ve done a great job of restoring it to its former glory.
Robert Evans, a local Nottingham architect, designed the building in 1869-70 for The Imperial Fire and Life Insurance Company. In 1913 it became the Reform Club, a place for Nottingham’s new wealthy middle classes to meet and dine out – its members included Sir Jesse Boot, the founder of Boots. In the 1960s it became the Victoria Club a private members club and casino but closed around 2005. Now the three floors have been adapted to bars and dining areas with private rooms for hire with great food, lovely staff and stunning interiors. (This isn’t an ad, I was just really impressed by how well the details of the interiors have been retained – when I showed the photos to my dad who once came here on a work’s celebration in the ’60s he said it looked almost exactly the same).
After our meal I went on a bit of a wander of the downstairs area to take photos, because of course. There is a small gin bar which looks quite cosy and very much like members clubs of old
and a lovely staircase (and Christmas tree).
Naturally no review would be complete if I didn’t also add that are some lovely stained glass windows throughout.
I’ll definitely be back. You can find some more photos here.
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