Stephen Kane - Retail - London W2, Westbourne Grove

Date: 05 Jun 2000

More Elbow Room for the UK

The Elbow Room, the fashionable pool lounge and bar venue, is planning a UK-wide expansion with 10 new venues by 2005.

Owner The Elbow Room Management Company PLC, which has already established venues in London and Leeds, is seeking to acquire additional leisure pitch sites in London together with Oxford, Cambridge, Nottingham and Newcastle among other locations being considered.

The company owns eponymous venues in Westbourne Grove, London W2 and in Leeds and has just opened a third venue in Chapel Market, Islington, where they took a 20-year lease at a rent of £125,000 per annum. The Chapel Market venue is a 929 sq m (10,000 sq ft) unit featuring 11 Sam K-Steel American pool tables and a 45' bar along with lounge, dance floor, private pool room, plasma screens, video projectors and an actively promoted music policy.

The pool tables are covered in a trademark Elbow Room purple baize and the venue is the first in London to showcase a new 'digital surround sound' technology from Fern Audio.

Comments Justin Carter, MD of The Elbow Room Management Company:

"The massive revival of pool halls in the US is being mirrored in the UK market. What you are now seeing, however, is a new breed of design conscious operator determined to attract both male and female customers by combining traditional American pool hall features with a bar/club atmosphere and dance floor in order to offer those customers a comprehensive range of leisure pursuits."

London-based Stephen Kane & Company has recently been retained as sole agent. Comments Jonathan Cowan of Stephen Kane & Company:

"Elbow Room provides a 'chameleon' operation - switching from an emphasis on pool and food during the day to a genuine club atmosphere as the evening progresses. The secret of their success - good leisure design combined with a customer service oriented approach -- ensures they are attracting a highly desirable mix of customers."

Cowan says the emphasis will be to open new venues in or near established leisure pitches.

"We are looking at units largely in near-prime locations within a city's established leisure pitch " he says. "We won't be confined to a ground floor pitch - if the layout is right we will acquire first-floor or lower-ground locations providing the entrance/access from ground floor is sufficient."

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