JD Wetherspoon is to invest £750,000 in The Hunters Hall, in High Street, Galashiels to increase the pub’s capacity by 50%. It will be able to cater for 594 from 394 customers after Scottish Borders Council’s licensing board voted unanimously in favour of the proposals.
Wetherspoon has already secured planning permission to extend into the old JB Hogg butcher’s shop next door, which has been vacant since owner Jim Hogg retired in 2013.
The pub takes its name from the tower used by the Earls of Douglas, who once administered the area. The tower, known locally as ‘Hunters Hall’, was demolished in 1813 to make way for the old town school.
The Hunters Hall, opened in the late 1990s, is one of three Wetherspoon pubs in the Borders, the others being the Bourtree at Hawick and the Cross Keys at Peebles.