News / Harbourside
Licence granted for new BrewDog bar despite residents’ objections
BrewDog has won permission to open a huge new bar in the Harbourside, but the opening hours of the new venue have been scaled back after fierce opposition from residents.
The craft beer bar chain originally applied for a late-night licence to sell alcohol until 1.30am in the former Triathlon Shop and Costa on the corner of Millennium Promenade and Cathedral Walk.
But it agreed to bring forward last orders by up to two hours and to make other concessions after the authorities and 165 neighbours objected to the licensing application.
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Five people living in neighbouring blocks of flats spoke passionately about their fears at a licensing hearing where the premises licence was granted.
They said ruthless corporations who “don’t care about ruining people’s lives” were turning the high-density residential area into a “drinking area”, with all the associated problems of noise, nuisance and crime and disorder.
They accused Bristol City Council of failing to protect the mixed-use neighbourhood from an excess of pubs and bars, saying that the granting of an alcohol licence for bowling alley and bar chain Lane7 in 2020 had been the “tipping point”.
Dozens of residents objected to the opening of a new Brewdog bar within the former Triathlon Shop and Costa – photo: Paul Gillis / Bristol Live
Every new licensed premise increased the levels of alcohol-related noise and anti-social behaviour in the area, and the new BrewDog bar would “undoubtedly” do the same, they said.
The new bar lies in a “cumulative impact” zone in the city centre considered to be saturated with licensed premises.
It is set to open next door to Lane 7, which prior to its opening promised to be “a more family-orientated product” despite children not being allowed in the venue after 7pm.
A legal representative for BrewDog told the hearing it was a “long held ambition” of the company to open a second bar in Bristol, having opened its first in Baldwin Street a decade ago.
BrewDog opened its first and so far only bar in Bristol in 2012 on the corner of Baldwin Street and Welsh Back – photo: Martin Booth
Solicitor Felicity Tulloch said the company thought the former units in the Harbourside would be an “appropriate” location as there were other licensed premises nearby.
She said BrewDog had been surprised by the level of public opposition to its licensing application, given the hours it sought mirrored those in planning permission granted for the premises last year.
The meeting heard that Avon & Somerset police, and the council’s pollution control and health and safety departments, also raised concerns about the application, but withdrew their objections after the company agreed to submit to a number of conditions on the licence.
These included calling last orders at midnight instead of 1.30am on Fridays and Saturdays and at 11pm instead of 1am on Sundays through Thursdays, with closing half an hour later.
Main photo: Martin Booth
Read more: Formal complaint could be made about proposed new BrewDog bar
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