The pub closed less than a year ago
Inside the King’s Head pub in Bedminster Down, which closed on New Year’s Eve 2024(Image: 2k.Abandoned.Places)
This is the scene inside a once-popular South Bristol pub – which closed less than a year ago and now faces an uncertain future. The pub, which was bought by developers, has been left empty, and just 11 months after the last pint was poured, it now looks ‘honestly shocking’, according to urban explorers who ventured inside.
The King’s Head is a well known pub in South Bristol – it’s the last establishment in Bristol on the way out of the city on the A38 towards Bristol Airport, and is close to the South Bristol Crematorium, so was often used for get-togethers after funerals.
When it closed at the end of last year, it came after months of uncertainty with the pub up for sale, new owners and speculation that car park would be redeveloped for new homes.
Since then, throughout 2025, the pub was fenced off and appears to have been left empty and abandoned. When YouTubers from urban explorer channels 2k.Abandoned.Places, along with The Secret Vault, Mick Spanner and 2k.exploring.Chelsea checked out the pub building in late November, they found it empty.
“We made the decision as a team to go inside because the building was already open and unsecured,” a spokesperson for 2k Abandoned Places. “We never force entry, we never damage anything, we never take anything – we simply document abandoned locations as we find them,” he added.
READ MORE: Bristol pub to close forever with speculation it could become flatsREAD MORE: Landlady of Bedminster Down pub set to close forever shares memories
“It was honestly shocking to see the pub in such a bad state. The more Urbex we do, the more we’re realizing that so many pubs either sit waiting for demolition or go up for sale and just get more and more damaged over time. It’s a shame to see them left to rot,” he added.
Inside the pub, the urban explorers found many of the fixtures and fittings pretty much untouched, but also say they found evidence people had been living in there too.
The pub’s landlady for 12 years was Sarah Aston-Davies, who not only lost her business when the pub closed, but also her family home.
Just before the pub closed for the final time on New Year’s Eve 2024, she shared with Bristol Live her sense of loss at the pub closing.
Inside the King’s Head pub in Bedminster Down, which closed on New Year’s Eve 2024(Image: 2k.Abandoned.Places)
“It’s not just been a business, it’s been our family home,” she said this time last year. “And the people, the locals, they’ve become part of our family. I’ve watched their kids grow up, they’ve watched my kids grow up. It’s more than just a pub.
“Everyone’s got their own reasons to come here. I know a lot of people who have met in this pub,” she said at the time. “We’ve had people come back here and tell us they got married here in the skittle alley, 40 years ago.
Inside the King’s Head pub in Bedminster Down, which closed on New Year’s Eve 2024(Image: 2k.Abandoned.Places)
“They come back because this is where they met or where they got married or where they dated, or that sort of thing.
“It’s filled with memories. And Bedminster Down, as well as the pub, is a close-knit community. Lots of generational families are still here, living within houses of each other, or roads from each other. They’ve never left the area. So that’s nice. I don’t know how to explain it – we are what we are. But we’re quite unique within the pub trade now.”