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City centre pub The Union Rooms has been sold to new owners and will close its doors for good as a Wetherspoon venue next month.

Pub operator JD Wetherspoon is understood to have agreed to sell the listed building to a leisure operator in an undisclosed deal, which is due to be completed at the end of February.

The new owner’s plans for the 19th century building – the first JD Wetherspoon opened in Newcastle – have yet to be revealed, but it is understood that all 60 staff will transfer to the new company, or be offered jobs at other Wetherspoon venues in the area.

It is understood that Wetherspoon exchanged on the sale of The Union Rooms on Tuesday and that the pub will close at the end of February, when all paperwork is completed.

It’s not known how much the building has sold for, but it is likely to be considerably more than the £5.6m that the pub giant bought the building for at the end of 2015 in one of the city centre’s biggest property deals.

The Union Rooms – arguably the jewel in the crown for JD Wetherspoon’s Newcastle portfolio of pubs – was one of three in the North East which formed part of a portfolio 45 of its UK properties that were placed on the market last year.

The Leaping Salmon in Berwick was sold last year to rivals Stonegate Pub Company, and it has now re-opened.

An unnamed pub operator is also understood to have exchanged contracts on the Lambton Worm in Sunderland, although it is not known when this deal will complete.

It is, however, believed that all 40 jobs will be saved, either by transferring to the new owners or by taking up new roles within Wetherspoon.

JD Wetherspoon announced today that it has now sold the majority of the pubs put on the market in 2016.

In a trading update the firm said that since the start of the financial year it has sold 21 of the 26 remaining in the portfolio and that it intends to open 10 to 15 pubs in the current financial year.

The firm’s founder and chairman Tim Martin has previously said: “We have got five pubs in Newcastle and we are opening up pubs in the suburbs of Newcastle, investing millions of pounds.

“We put one pub too many in the centre. We think it is better to put our investment into ones that are a little further away. So we will still have a Wetherspoon to go to in Newcastle but it does cause us heartache to lose the Union Rooms.”

The five-storey listed Union Rooms dates back to 1877 and was a gentlemen’s club called the Union Club for almost 100 years, with WG Armstrong – later Lord Armstrong – being its most famous member.

A spokesman for JD Wetherspoon refused to comment on the two deals.