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‘Indipartment store’ to be forced to close
The director of a unique space in Bristol says that he and his team are “fighting against a brick wall” as the lease on the building they have been in for more than three years will not be renewed.
Art Club Market on Bond Street have been told they will have to leave the property in mid-December.
The ‘indipartment store’ as the space has come to be known is an amalgamation of a variety of businesses including Bristol-born clothes shop Wild Thing, Back Garden Pizzeria and Glow Up Studios.
is needed now More than ever
Corin Bush, director of the business told Bristol24/7 that “even I’m not fully caught up with it, but basically there is a chain of subleasing going on”.
Despite having signed an ongoing lease, he believed that Art Club Market had more security in the length of their tenancy of the space close to the former Debenhams.
“We’re not far from the top of the chain, it’s just the person at the top isn’t a guy, it’s a hedge fund, meaning it’s owned by them,” Bush explained.
“They don’t even know what we do here. They don’t have a clue. So we’re one property on a big spreadsheet of tens of other properties, they don’t even know what we do.
“We can’t get through to them. It’s an agency, then it’s going through their lawyers.”
Bush explained that they have tried to get some direct engagement from the building’s owners – but that despite providing them with evidence including how long they have been there and proof of payments, they still have not been given an explanation as to why their lease will not be renewed.
“We’re kind of fighting against a brick wall,” Bush said.
During lockdown, Danny Saville made his pizzas in his garden before opening Back Garden Pizzeria’s new home in Broadmead.
Bush added: “We’ve tried to be as versatile as possible, and try to use the space for whatever people have a vision for.
“We’ve kind of given everyone free rein to run their business, we don’t interfere, and we don’t take anyone’s profit.
“We try and give them as much freedom as possible.
“The ideas and plans for the space have been very fluid over the years, it just kind of happened to be because we met someone, or we saw an opportunity, or it happened once and it’s just been ever evolving and changing, which is interesting.”
In a statement on their Instagram, Wild Thing said: “We’ve been hit with the reality that we’re going to have to go backwards for a while, only trading online”
The businesses within Art Club Market are often found organically, Bush said, “via friends of friends, or seeing someone do something I like, people in the community who run small businesses”.
“Once everyone came together, it’s just always been a group effort since then. To us, collaboration is the most important thing.
“And obviously not just in a business sense, also the fact that so many people use it for events, pop-ups, creative uses.
“People work here in the cafe on their laptops, and it’s great to see everything that goes on, and meet all the different and interesting people that come in.
“We’ve got so many regulars who come in that we chat with, and now I’m invested in their lives, all those little things, and that’s the bit that won’t exist anymore with going to a new place and we will miss that.”
But Bush is keen to emphasise that while it’s unfortunate the way their circumstance has unfolded, he is not worried about “bricks and mortar” as they can move somewhere else: “We’ve got to the point where we want to expand the venue’s operations, in terms of the events side.”
Art Club Marketplace have launched a crowdfunder as a way to help sustain the businesses once they close, hoping to raise £35,000.
“Its not just Art Club,” said Bush. “It’s all these vendors who are separate, they need to make sure they do what’s best for them, whether Art Club resurfaces with the same people we have now, or with new people, but we’re hopeful they stick with us.”
All photos: Hannah Massoudi
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