Apartments planned for famous nightclub site

Plans have been submitted to build apartments on land in Stoke-on-Trent that used to be home to an iconic nightclub.

The Place on Bryan Street, Hanley, was claimed to be the UK's first discotheque at its launch in 1963, it attracted acts like David Bowie and Led Zeppelin and drew crowds from across the Midlands.

The venue was demolished in 2015 and now a Stoke-on-Trent building firm is proposing to build 115 apartments across two buildings on the site.

"It's nice they are going to make use of the land... it was such an iconic venue," said Mark Porter, who was a DJ at The Place from 1985 to 2003.

"There was nowhere else ever like it," said Porter.

He performed around the world, but there was nothing like playing there on a Saturday night, describing the experience as unbelievable.

"It was a destination venue, it was somewhere that made our area really, really proud and it was somewhere that I was very lucky to have worked."

It was a sad day when it was knocked down, said the former DJ, who always thought there should have been stars in the pavement on the road outside like there is in LA, describing the venue as part of the city's heritage.

A Place reunion event a few years ago sold out within a couple of hours, he added.

"It was a labyrinth of rooms and corridors, alcoves, dark corners, different bars... it was unusual," said Phil Johnson, who with Bob Leigh have put up unofficial blue plaques around Stoke-on-Trent as a way of honouring familiar haunts that have disappeared.

Their plaque to The Place is on the car park opposite the land on Bryan Street.

Javaid Iqbal, owner of Stoke-on-Trent firm H&S Construction, which is planning to build the apartments, said they wanted to nod to the site's past.

He said the new residential blocks would likely be named in a way that kept the history of the site in mind, adding: "It could be Place block one, something like that."

The proposals to build 115 one-bed apartments are pending consideration by Stoke-on-Trent City Council.

Follow BBC Stoke & Staffordshire on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.