Bristol Guildhall suffers extensive damage in major fire

Police are treating the fire as suspicious

From: https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/history-guildhall-building-suffers-extensive-3954378?fbclid=IwAR3xHnuoE1Dw4UDLWJtCNoD1gagRjDj6GrnjEECk52n0yZWuR3Otp6BX6I8

What is the blue light?

(Image: Gus Lloyd)  

One of Bristol's historic Grade II-listed buildings suffered extensive damage following a major fire over the weekend.

Emergency services were called to the Guildhall in Small Street around 1.40am Sunday morning (March 15) to reports of a fire.

At the height of the blaze around 50 firefighters were at the scene working to bring the fire under control and around 20 students had to be evacuated from nearby accommodation.

The fire was extinguished by late Sunday morning, but not before the fire had spread through the building and parts of the roof of the Grade II-listed building had collpased.

The cause of the fire is currently unknown, but police are treating it as suspicious and an investigation is underway.

Several roads around the building still remain closed as of Monday afternoon, while restructuring work of the building takes place.

As work gets underway to assess the damage and restore the historic Guildhall we have taken a look at the history of the building - some of which dates back to the time of King Henry VIII.

Bristol’s former Guildhall, with frontages facing onto Broad Street and Small Street, has been closed since 2010 and sold by owners Bristol City Council for re-development.

The site has been in the news recently as owners, the Bath-based Trevor Osborne Property Group, submitted ambitious plans to transform the complex into a very swanky hotel, with 91 rooms, a spa and restaurant and other facilities including a rooftop pool.

These plans are more ambitious than those originally revealed in 2013 and council officials had recommended them for approval.

All along the developers have been at pains to emphasise the site contains little that is of historic interest. Largely re-built between the 1840s and 1860s, the site was damaged by German bombing during the war and much of the interior was remodelled in the 1960s.