It has been closed for almost a decade
How the former Merchants Arms pub in Stapleton would look in a redevelopment(Image: Hill Reading Architects)
This is how a derelict former landmark Bristol pub will look if planning permission is granted for a major redevelopment to give it a new lease of life.
The former Merchants Arms in Stapleton, which shut in 2016, would become the new expanded headquarters of a local health tech company on the ground floor, with an extension for a community cafe with soft play for toddlers and nine bedsits on the first floor.
Businessman Tariq Muhammad, the boss of Invatech Health, which employs about 50 people at its current base in Stapleton Road, Easton, is behind the plans, which have now been submitted to Bristol City Council.
A vacant single-storey flat would be demolished for vehicle access with 17 car parking bays and 19 cycle places at the site in the shadow of the M32 flyover on the corner of Bell Hill and Averay Road.
Agents for Invatech Health sister company Red Rock Developments said in documents to the local authority’s planning department: “The former public house has now stood vacant since 2016, a period of nearly 10 years, and has fallen into a very poor state of repair.
Businessman Tariq Muhammad with the former Merchants Arms pub in Eastville(Image: Invatech)
“Due to antisocial behaviour and vandalism which has recently taken place at the site, the applicant has now boarded up the site to try and keep it secure and the site has become somewhat of an eyesore.
“The proposals would bring this locally listed building back into beneficial use, regenerating this currently derelict site and breathing new life into the building.”
They said the proposals had the backing of Eastville ward Green Cllr Lorraine Francis and ‘the vast majority of the local community’ following public consultation.
But a planning inspector rejected an appeal by the applicants in 2023 to change the venue’s use to housing on the grounds that they were not satisfied that the pub could not reopen.
The Merchants Arms, next to the M32 in Stapleton, pictured in 2016, just before it closed(Image: Google Maps)
The inspector’s rejection came after the council, which did not contest the appeal, failed to make a decision in time.
Red Rock’s agents said in newly submitted planning papers: “It is evident that with the passing of a further 26 months since this appeal decision, and with the submission of an updated economic viability report which is being submitted in support of this current application, it has been made absolutely clear that the building in its present use as a public house is not economically viable.
“This concludes that the use of the building as a public house is already extinguished with the public house having not traded since 2016.
“The building is in a very poor state of repair, with little resemblance of a public house and requiring significant levels of investment to reopen in any form.
“Furthermore, the building is too big to operate as a community public house and the costs associated with this would be prohibitive.
“There was no public house demand when previously marketed for 25 months and the risk associated with the property and current market conditions, especially in terms of cost base and cost of finance, makes the costs of reopening the building as a public house prohibitive and unviable.
“Overall, the report therefore concludes that the property does not have a credible or economically sustainable future trading as a public house.”
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