End in sight for one of Bristol’s biggest eyesores

Plans for a public plaza at Temple Gate have received a huge boost after the forced sale of one of Bristol’s biggest eyesores moved a step closer.

Lawyers have told the city council that about 100 investors who each ploughed tens of thousands of pounds into a failed redevelopment of the derelict Grosvenor Hotel are no longer a barrier to the project.

It means the authority can press ahead with a compulsory purchase order (CPO) for the site near the Temple Meads.

But it will come as a massive blow to the victims of an alleged scam, which is the subject of an ongoing investigation by the Insolvency Service.

Grosvenor Property Developers Ltd had proposed replacing the hotel with 144 self-contained student flats and started selling them for £99,000, with buyers putting down deposits of almost £50,000.

The company did not submit an official planning application, however, and building work never started, despite an expected completion date of September 2017.

Money was never returned to buyers, prompting the probe by the Insolvency Service into the firm following its liquidation.

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Bristol City Council has been trying to buy the dilapidated 19th-century hotel at Portwall Lane East from owners Earlcloud Ltd since 2016.

Plans submitted by developers SPD Temple Circus in 2017 show a glass-fronted office block that would be the second Engine Shed in place of the Grosvenor Hotel, which would be demolished.

In November 2018, cabinet members approved a CPO for the property, although the legal opinion at the time was that the 100 investors into the student flats project were considered “unilateral notices against the freehold title of the Grosvenor Hotel” and needed to be included in the compulsory purchase order.

But a report to cabinet said advice from specialist counsel now concluded that the “interests protected by the unilateral notices are no longer to be considered interests in land” under legislation, so the CPO can go ahead without their inclusion.

The report said the council would write to the investors where possible to explain its position.

Engine Shed have plans to expand onto the site of the former Grosvenor Hotel – image: Engine Shed

Cabinet member for housing, Paul Smith, told the meeting over Zoom: “I remember being phoned by people being asked to invest in something that was less than likely to happen, to put it lightly, so I’m really pleased to see this moving forward.

“This is very much a building that has become a blight, and to redevelop the site is really important for the regeneration of that part of central Bristol.”

Cabinet member for spatial planning and city design, Nicola Beech, said the day that the Grosvenor Hotel was demolished would be as momentous as when she “stood at Temple Meads and saw the Royal Mail sorting office had gone”.

She said the hotel “eroded the whole feeling” of the area.

“We all weathered those road improvements that were so needed in Temple Gate but actually it’s only when the Grosvenor Hotel is sorted that we will really reap the benefits of that enhanced public space,” Beech said.

“There is so much land there relative to how much available land we have in the city to do something really spectacular, not just in terms of new offices and housing but in terms of how you feel as a pedestrian and cyclist in that space.”

Designed by SC Fripp, the Grosvenor Hotel was built in 1875 and was once one of Bristol’s grandest places to stay – photo by Martin Booth

Bristol mayor Marvin Rees added: “These are huge signals to the city about our commitment to delivery and getting things done because those buildings have been such symbols of not getting done in the past.

“We are longing for the day when it is finally no longer there and we can look clearly across that part of Bristol.”

Councillors agreed to press ahead with the compulsory purchase order and seek a stopping-up order for a nearby redundant part of the highway.

Main photo by Martin Booth

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