Blind Tiger Witney: plan to turn closed bar into jeweller's

The Blind Tiger, the cocktail and live music bar at 8 Market Square in Witney, is permanently closed, and its ground floor could become a jeweller’s shop. A planning application validated by West Oxfordshire District Council on 10 August 2026 asks to change the unit’s use from a bar back to retail, and anyone can comment on it until 31 August.

The supporting statement filed with the application, prepared by Witney surveyors Shields Longden and Co and dated 1 August, sets out what happened plainly: “The bar, The Blind Tiger, subsequently went bankrupt in 2025, and is permanently closed.” The premises are vacant, and the change of use is sought “to support proposed use/occupation by/as a jeweller”.

What the application asks for

Application 26/01861/FUL is a full application to change the ground floor of 8 Market Square from its current sui generis use as a wine and cocktail bar to Class E, the planning class that covers shops. It was received on 3 August 2026 and validated on 10 August. The case officer is George Matthews and the site sits in Witney South ward.

The statement notes the unit was “mostly … historically used as a retail outlet”, so the application is a reversal: it was retail until late 2022, when consent turned it into a bar. Because the change is use only, the heritage statement concludes the proposal has “a ‘no change’ impact on the nature of the listed building”. Number 8 is Grade II listed, on the list since 1970, and stands in the town centre conservation area.

The council’s economic development team already backs it

One consultation response is in, and it is supportive. In a comment published on the register on 10 August, the district council’s economic development team writes: “The failure of the previous wine bar operation has left the property empty, and bringing the unit back into productive commercial use would help maintain footfall, support the vitality and viability of the town centre, and reduce the risk of a prolonged vacancy.”

That comment is advice to the case officer, not the decision itself, but it removes one obvious objection: nobody at the council is arguing to hold the unit for another bar.

A short life as a bar

The unit’s spell as a bar lasted barely two years of trading. An application to convert the then shop into a wine and cocktail bar (22/02411/FUL) was received on 27 August 2022 and approved on 8 November 2022. By January 2023 the operators were back with a variation application (23/00237/S73) to extend the permitted opening hours. The bankruptcy recorded in the 2026 supporting statement ended it.

The premises have been on the open market. A Rightmove commercial listing offers the 948 sq ft ground floor, still “fitted out as a wine and cocktail bar”, at a guide price of £350,000 for the freehold or £30,000 a year on a lease, and shows the property as under offer, which fits an incoming occupier waiting on this permission.

What it means for you

You can comment until Monday 31 August 2026. Search for reference 26/01861/FUL on the West Oxfordshire planning register and use the Comments tab. The case officer weighs responses after the consultation closes.

Class E is broader than one jeweller. If approved, the unit could later switch between shop, café, office or gym without a further planning application, because those uses all sit inside Class E. What it could not do without fresh permission is go back to being a bar or pub, which is exactly the position this application is unwinding.

For the square itself, the practical difference is a vacant unit versus an occupied one. The council’s own economic development comment makes that case: an empty ground floor on Market Square helps nobody, and a trading shop keeps footfall in the town centre.

We track every notable West Oxfordshire application on our Witney planning news page.