Sessions House to add to Peterborough's foodie options once more

Owner Rinaldo Fasulo mothballed the landmark bar and restaurant, on Thorpe Road, in 2012 – a little more than a year after the neighbouring district hospital closed.

A car park has been operated from the venue - built in 1842 as the frontage of Peterborough’s prison - ever since.

Now with development work on the former PDH site underway - and hundreds of new homes on the horizon - the entrepreneur, who also owns the Broadway Theatre and Halo nightclub has decided the time is right to explore his options.

The 200-seater restaurant with parking for more than 60 cars is being marketed by leading city commercial property agents Barker Storey Matthews, and concept drawings and designs have been prepared by award-winning bar and nightclub designers GMP Design.

Rinaldo, a long-time admirer of the Victorian building, bought it in 2002 from the Bass brewery and continued to run it as a bar and carvery for a decade until its closure.

“I thought the time was right to test the water, and to see what interest there is out there,” he said this week.

“This building offers something different to anywhere else in the city and it is a prime area.

“There is movement at last on the hospital site, with 400 houses being built there, and nearby on Midland Road another 200.

“I put it on the market about three weeks ago, looking for a big chain to perhaps take it on but you never know I might even do it myself.

“In Peterborough city centre there are loads of restaurants opening up, but this location is ideal just on the outskirts. The designs that have been done are amazing.”