You might think that plans to build a hotel on top of a nightclub is bad news for the club, but in new plans revealed by the Jazz Cafe, bosses have said that it could be the opposite. 

The Columbo Group, which owns Jazz Cafe as well as the Blues Kitchen chain, Phonox and The Parakeet in Kentish Town, has applied for planning permission to turn the rooms above the Camden music venue into a hotel,  reported. 

According to the documents, the hospitality group wants to renovate the upstairs rooms at 5-7 Parkway as well as the space at 9 Parkway next door, which was previously a restaurant. The Columbo Group bought 9 Parkway after the building’s owners were granted planning permission to redevelop the property in 2023. The plans would see a ‘part amalgamation of 5-7 and 9 Parkway at second to fourth floor levels’, creating the space for the hotel as well as new offices, a green room for artists and bigger coat check facilities. 

If granted permission, the Columbo Group will add a mansard roof extension and five-storey rear extension to the building. The hotel entrance and reception would take over the ground floor of the number 9 building, with a coffee shop area open to the public that would feel like a ‘genuine, welcoming high-street use rather than a standard hotel lobby’.

A design statement by DGA Architects said that building the hotel above the venue could ‘safeguard the future’ of the Jazz Cafe. 

‘When Columbo took over the Jazz Cafe it was a tired looking, unloved venue in decline,’ the statement said. ‘They spent considerable time and money in refurbishing the venue to make it a place which reflected its rich music history, cultural status as a leading Camden venue and would attract the kind of artists that gave it its reputation in the first place.’

It added: ‘In recent years we have steadily seen the sad demise of many live music venues and as their popularity and viability has diminished they have been lost at an alarming rate.

‘Columbo are committed to ensuring the Jazz Cafe remains a key venue for live music which is the heartbeat of Camden Town and continue to invest in improving it.’

Did you see that a new restaurant and wine bar is opening at one of London’s coolest art galleries?

Plus: A new pub will open on top of a brewery on the Blackhorse Beer Mile. 

Get the latest and greatest from the Big Smoke – from news and reviews to events and trends. Just follow our Time Out London WhatsApp channel.

Stay in the loop: sign up to our free Time Out London newsletter for the best of the city, straight to your inbox.