Baileys Court Inn in Stoke Gifford underwent a £400k revamp
11:59, 08 Jan 2026Updated 11:59, 08 Jan 2026
Baileys Court Inn in Stoke Gifford
A much-loved Bristol pub has won the right to install an external bar and play films and live music outside as part of a major £396,000 refurbishment.
But a solicitor for Baileys Court Inn in Stoke Gifford insisted it would remain firmly rooted in the community and would not simply be a sports bar despite a transformation into a ‘Grandstand’ venue with huge new screens and sound systems to give fans a ‘stadium experience’.
Bradley Stoke Town Council objected to pub operator Marston’s application to vary its premises licence conditions.
However, it was granted by South Gloucestershire Council licensing sub-committee on Wednesday, January 7.
Solicitor Michelle Hazlewood, representing the pub, branded the objections as “speculation, fear, and unsubstantiated”.
She told the hearing: “People have said this is going to be a sports bar.
“This is not going to be purely a sports bar, it’s going to remain community premises and continue to have a very strong sports offer but it will also have a food offer which is going to be there, day in, day out.
“This remains very much at the heart of the community and somewhere families want to go.
“There is no objection against the internal works.
“It looks lovely, it’s massively improved, externally it looks splendid, therefore it improves the amenity of the area.
“It was what was needed for this site.
“The installation of the best kitchen, the best audio system, means they can do what they were doing with even more confidence and the community can have that confidence that externally they can manage that noise.”
Bradley Stoke Town Council objected on the broad grounds that the changes would be ‘detrimental to public health and the wellbeing of local residents’ and could increase antisocial behaviour, noise and littering.
But town council deputy clerk Philip Francis-Barber could not provide specific examples because the objections were agreed at a previous meeting by local parish councillors who were not at the hearing to expand on their concerns.
Licensing sub-committee chairman Cllr Ron Hardie (Labour, Emersons Green) said: “We’ve got the objections from the town council, unfortunately not particularly substantiated with examples or reasons why they’ve objected, which is a bit of a concern.
“It almost seems that they’ve said ‘we’ll object to that and see what happens’.
“On something like this the sub-committee would expect to see that a complaint about noise was substantiated by an example.”
Licensing conditions were agreed in advance with the police and environmental health.
The pub reopened last month following the revamp.
It already had permission to play films and live music indoors.