{"id":954628,"date":"2026-05-12T10:50:27","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T10:50:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/954628\/"},"modified":"2026-05-12T10:50:27","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T10:50:27","slug":"bristol-businessman-ready-for-dream-purchase-of-bridgerton-mansion-for-the-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/954628\/","title":{"rendered":"Bristol businessman ready for dream purchase of Bridgerton mansion for the city"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cThis is a once-in-a-generation opportunity”\"bristolpost\"<\/p>\n

06:00, 12 May 2026<\/p>\n

\"Johnny<\/p>\n

Johnny Palmer at Leigh Court(Image: Johnny Palmer)<\/p>\n

A Bristol businessman who has thousands of people signed up to his dream of buying a mansion on the edge of the city<\/a> and turning it into a members club says it is a \u2018crunch time\u2019 for the project.<\/p>\n

Johnny Palmer, who is perhaps most famous in Bristol for installing a 727 jet fuselage on an industrial estate in Brislington<\/a>, is trying to buy Leigh Court, a 215-year-old Grade II*-listed mansion just over the Somerset side of the Clifton<\/a> Suspension Bridge.<\/p>\n

The mansion has been used as a backdrop for everything from Bridgerton, Doctor Who and Sanditon, and is currently owned by Business West and is an events venue and headquarters for the organisation. Last year, Business West put a \u00a35.5 million price tag on the mansion<\/a>, which comes with extensive grounds.<\/p>\n

Those marketing the property say it could be anything from a luxury hotel, a nursing home, converted to apartments or be converted back to one grand home.<\/p>\n

But Johnny Palmer, whose company already bought the stable block in 2022, has more unusual plans for the building, and says he is now in a position to buy it.<\/p>\n

Last year, he launched a project called \u2018Picaroon\u2019, which would be a members club to buy the building and create what he describes as a \u2018hybrid space combining businesses, creativity, wellness and nature – something he said Bristol is currently missing.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: \u00a35.5m mansion sale on edge of Bristol ‘will meet resistance’<\/a><\/p>\n

He said the project is now \u2018fully-funded, proceedable and ready to move\u2019. \u201cThis is a once-in-a-generation opportunity,\u201d he said, after confirming that more than 3,000 people and businesses had signed up to be would-be members of the Picaroon club.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile our offer has not been accepted yet, the team is chomping at the bit to get to work on this. The multi-phased development program is in place, we have registered the trademark, built the website, completed masterplan designs, formed the team and even built most of the custom software for the operation.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn truth this is easy for us as so many of our existing projects overlap with Picaroon. There are loads of synergies,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The Leigh Court estate in Abbots Leigh near Bristol(Image: Johnny Palmer – autonomous investments)<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is crunch time. Leigh Court is a once-in-a-generation opportunity and it needs the right buyer,\u201d said Mr Palmer.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not talking about another generic development. This is about creating a space that actually works for how people live and work today \u2014 something Bristol doesn\u2019t currently have,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Last week Mr Palmer began work on installing a second jet fuselage at the Skyline industrial estate<\/a> in Brislington, which would create a venue alongside the current jet, which is an Airbnb. This week, he is calling on Leigh Court to be sold to his Picaroon project – to keep the asset within Bristol.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Work begins on ‘Bristol’s second most iconic structure’<\/a>READ MORE: Four giant raves a year planned at Brislington industrial estate next to plane Airbnb<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201c\u201cI am getting tired of seeing the best parts of Bristol either get shut down or sold off to investors who intend to take more from the city than they will put in,\u201d he said. \u201cWe need more local ownership bringing money into the city and prosperity for the region.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile we cannot be certain who else might be putting in competing bids for the estate, we are very concerned it may be people who are not taking a Bristol-first approach or doing things that are not for the benefit of the region,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The Leigh Court estate in Abbots Leigh near Bristol(Image: Johnny Palmer – autonomous investments)<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course, the seller needs to look at what the best offer is, but I don’t believe business should all be about money – it is about using positive commerce to build a better world to live in. This has always been my focus,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

While the mansion itself is being sold off, there are stable blocks and outbuildings that are in different ownership, including Mr Palmer\u2019s company, which runs it as a business hub.<\/p>\n

\u201cLeigh Court isn\u2019t a simple asset. There are layers to how it operates, particularly around existing stakeholders on the estate,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf those realities aren\u2019t properly understood upfront, there\u2019s a real risk of problems emerging later on. We\u2019ve spent the last few years getting to grips with that \u2014 that\u2019s a big part of why we\u2019re confident in delivering this properly,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The Leigh Court estate in Abbots Leigh near Bristol(Image: Johnny Palmer – autonomous investments)<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve done the work. We\u2019ve built the team, secured the funding and tested the concept in the real world,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow it comes down to whether the opportunity is there to take Leigh Court forward in a way that actually works long term,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThis is a once-in-a-generation opportunity” 06:00, 12 May 2026 Johnny Palmer at Leigh Court(Image: Johnny Palmer) A Bristol…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":954629,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8818],"tags":[9420,381,748,18959,824,393,4884,956,11157,457,11653,10003,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-954628","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bristol","8":"tag-brislington","9":"tag-bristol","10":"tag-britain","11":"tag-clifton","12":"tag-doctor-who","13":"tag-england","14":"tag-great-britain","15":"tag-north-somerset","16":"tag-north-somerset-council","17":"tag-people","18":"tag-premium","19":"tag-property-news","20":"tag-uk","21":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116561225256642803","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/954628","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=954628"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/954628\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/954629"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=954628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=954628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=954628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}