A NEW bar is set to open in Basingstoke later this month.

Bar Fever and Boutique Basingstoke has announced on Facebook that it will open in the town on Friday, April 29, as part of a three-day launch over the Bank Holiday weekend.

As previously reported in The Gazette, Bar Fever applied to Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council for a new premises licence for the venue in Winchester Street, at the Top of The Town.

The venue was formerly occupied by Italian restaurant Cafe Piccolo before it was taken over by Zeus and run as a nightclub for four months.

Another nightclub, Stardust, then took over the venue, but it has been vacant since that closed down in 2013, shortly after opening.

William Hill bookmakers has been given permission to use the ground floor of the venue as a betting shop.

Bar Fever, which also runs nightclubs in Newbury and Cheltenham, has announced that the new venue will be across three levels and have three bars.

No-one from the company was available to comment.

The opening event is being held on the same weekend that Stage – a new performance space opening in Churchill Way – opens its doors for the first time, when Bob Geldof and the Boomtown Rats will perform.