Bristol's Temple Gate layout change planned in £21m revamp

[whole diary]

[DaveHarries]

Apologies for being sceptical but, going by the final map, this has all the hallmarks of a Bristol City Council scheme IMO. I will wait and see the final results before I pass final judgement though.

Dave

[Tony (Ex FT, N!)]

The Grosvenor is long overdue a serious uplift at the very least.

Before its incarnation as a hostel for homeless folks in the Naughties, I can recall that it still functioned as a hotel in the late 80s / early 90s. The council housed homeless families on the two top floors, and my job at the time including calling on them, often out of hours. It wasn't particularly nice - the hallway inside the front door seemed to go downhill, there was at one point one single functioning bathroom on a floor with three dozen rooms, and interviews were sometimes carried out to the sound of lorries scraping along the flyover. There was a bar, but I never felt tempted to take a drink there. One night, I was summoned there to see a new entrant, and was surprised to find two extremely large men in suits with a bulge below one armpit barring my way. One asked me, politely, what I was doing there. Normally, I would have told him that was my business, not his, but he was of a size and build that demanded an explanation. He nodded, then spoke to his cufflink. "Go to the lift, go to the fourth floor, nowhere else, my colleague will meet you there." He was right - a suited gorilla escorted me from lift to room, and back again. On the way out, I asked one of the men why the unusual concierge arrangement. Turned out that (then Sir) Norman Tebbit was dining there as a guest of some local businessmen. As he was just finishing his coffee and was about to leave, they decided they could tell me without having to kill me. I asked the obvious question: "Why here?" and was told "We don't know either."

[RichardB]

I'm sure the George and Railway was closed when I moved to Bristol in 1977. So about time, although given Bristol's track record, this announcement probably means that things like Engine Shed 2 are about to go out of fashion.

Very late to this, but I worked at Bath Spa station from early 87 to the beginning of 89 and it was open throughout this period.  I popped in for a pint from time to time (quite a decent bar and the beer was good, as I remember.)