News / Grosvenor Hotel
Final demolition of Grosvenor Hotel ‘will be done soon’
The demolition of one of Bristol’s biggest eyesores at a gateway to the city will resume soon and be completed by the end of March, council bosses say.
Crews began tearing down the former Grosvenor Hotel near Temple Meads station earlier this month but stopped work just days later, leaving the building in an even worse state visually than before.
They pulled down the original 1875 front half of the building, which was seriously damaged by fire 16 months ago, but left the 1930s curved rear extension standing.
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However, Bristol City Council chief executive Stephen Peacock said he was “not expecting it to stay quiet” for long.
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Read more: ‘Demolition finally underway on derelict hotel
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He told councillors that the owner, Nimish Popat, who was subject to a series of court actions by the local authority demanding that he either make the building safe or bulldoze it, had a legal responsibility to complete the work.
The blaze in October 2022 left the original part of the Victorian structure unsafe and the council created a wider exclusion zone after scaffolding was removed in spring 2023, which included the path and bus lane on the northbound side of Temple Way, which continues to cause delays to public transport and cycling.
Passenger and equalities campaigner David Redgewell told a council meeting on Monday that urgent action was needed.
He said: “We have a series of bus interchange bus stops at that location for buses coming in from the city region and Somerset, and it’s a major interchange for trains coming into Temple Meads.
“We were pleased when Bristol mayor Marvin Rees announced that it was going to be demolished and the bus interchange and cycleway reopened and the area made safe.
“However, the scheme has now stopped, there are no contractors on site, bits of the building and rubble are falling down onto the bus stops below which are still closed for safety reasons and the thing is a mess.
“What I’m asking today is for the council to take urgent action – serve notice, get demolition underway, clear that site and reopen the facilities for the travelling public including the cycleway and walkway.”
Crews began tearing down the former Grosvenor Hotel near Temple Meads station earlier this month but stopped work just days later, leaving the building in an even worse state visually than before – photo: Martin Booth
Peacock replied: “Just to be absolutely clear, the building and the work in question are the responsibility of the building owner.
“The contractors don’t work for Bristol City Council, they work for the building owner. Building enforcement colleagues at the council did go down there last week and the contractor confirmed to them that the work is scheduled to be continuing.
“There are certain things that the building owner is required to do. That includes making it safe, including the highway, the cycle path and the walking path around it.
“So it needs to be finished. As we understand it, it will be done and it will be done by the end of March but it’s the building owner’s responsibility.”
The council’s top officer told the overview and scrutiny management board that the authority had made the area safe but that meant having to close a path, which was “unsatisfactory”.
Asked by Green councillor Christine Townsend how the owner could be challenged if they failed to meet their legal requirements, Peacock said: “It has been through a process to get to a point where the building owner did agree, after several conversations which were escalated, to take the action they’re now taking.
“We’re not expecting it to have been stopped, I’m still expecting it to be finished, and the finishing of that job means bringing it back to full use so we can reopen the walkway and all of the highway and the transport interchange.
“They are under a legal duty to do that, and if they don’t comply with that legal duty, we will take the appropriate escalation action.”
It is not clear whether the whole of the building will be flattened when work resumes.
Bristol City Council’s cabinet approved a compulsory purchase order two years ago for the Grosvenor Hotel and the adjacent derelict George and Railway hotel building but it is not thought the council has gone through with it yet.
Adam Postans is a local democracy reporter for Bristol, Bath, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire
All photos: Martin Booth
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