New plans to demolish eyesore bank on main Bristol road spark residents' concerns

The owner of a landmark former bank in Bristol that has become a roofless-eyesore over the past ten years has asked council planners again if he can demolish it - or demolish most of it and leave the façade of the building intact.

But local residents and councillors say they are concerned that the old Edwardian bank building in Bishopston might just be allowed to ‘fall down’ anyway, with dozens objecting to two different planning applications submitted by the owner.

Back in March, Bristol Live revealed that council planners had refused to give permission to the building’s owner Omid Jalil’s plan to build a six-storey block of flats in place of the prominent 110-year-old bank building on Gloucester Road. Now, Mr Jalil has returned with two slightly different applications.

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The first was submitted by Mr Jalil in mid-April. He applied to Bristol City Council for permission to demolish the old bank building, with the façade that faces Gloucester Road and Longmead Avenue partly retained. Then, last week, Mr Jalil submitted a second planning application, which asked if prior notification was required to demolish the bank completely.

That would appear unlikely, given that the main reason the council’s planners gave in March for refusing the six-storey flats plan was because the building itself was categorised as a ‘local historic asset’, even though it’s not officially listed by Historic England.

The building itself was most recently an office for a recruitment firm, but has been empty for more than ten years. Mr Jalil’s original plan to convert the building into nine luxury flats above a café was approved and work began in 2019, but was scuppered by Covid a year later. The roof was pulled down and since then it’s been a shell of a building creating an eyesore in a prominent spot on Gloucester Road.

In the application, Mr Jalil told council planners: “The remaining parts of the building are unsafe and not suitable for conversion.

“A full demolition is proposed to allow for redevelopment of the site. The demolition will be carried by a demolition company who will provide method statements for the work prior to commencement,” he added. The work to demolish the building is proposed to take place between the end of June and the end of September this year.

Local residents said they want the building to be saved and not demolished. One neighbour, Emily Hawthorne, said the application to retain the facade was a ‘step in the right direction’, but residents were still concerned that the whole building might end up just falling down anyway.

“There are still concerns - how will the structure be supported and what about the missing roof?” she said. “This is getting ridiculous. He clearly has no respect for the building. It is unsafe because he has made it unsafe. If it was not suitable for development he shouldn’t have bought it and submitted plans to develop it, and he shouldn’t have demolished half of it including the roof,” she added.

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Local councillor James Crawford (Green, Bishopston and Ashley Down) said he would work with planners and the building’s owner to get more detail.

“Retaining the façade in one application is a step in the right direction, it is possible to retain the façade and tie it to a new building which I hope is what is being considered here,” he said. “In some instances, I find the blend of the heritage and the more modern styles can be quite appealing.

“I do share the residents’ concerns about what would come next after demolition however,” he added.