Having shut last September, The Jam Factory will reopen with Thirst Bar as the new license holders. The former tenants who ran a restaurant, bar, and gallery in the space which hosted live music every Friday independently were forced to close the doors of the former marmalade factory when they could not come to an agreement with the property’s landlords, Nuffield College.
The new license granted to Thirst permits them to host live gigs and film screenings at the site. This venue would become the cocktail bar chain’s third across the UK and second in Oxford. Thirst is typically less popular with undergraduates than Atik or Bridge, styling itself toward a target market of young professionals with deeper pockets.
This comes after Brasenose College reversed their decision last week from a staunchly opposed position to the licensing of the venue where a spokesperson maintained that the application be ‘refused entirely’. The college expressed concern that the late closing times applied for by Spirit Ltd. on behalf of Thirst: 1am on Thursday and 2am on Friday and Saturday, would intrude upon their ‘peaceful place in which to sleep and study’. But the college’s position softened, and it then withdrew objections to the license after a new, uniform closing time of 12am was agreed upon.The Oxford Mail reported that neighbours feared the return of what they termed “drunken revelry” which they associated with Plush’s old Park End St incarnation before it moved to its current location in Frewin Court. The date of the legendary venue’s grand reopening is yet to be announced.
