Western Daily Press (Saturday)
Squatter ‘doing up’ once grand derelict hotel
There is so much heritage here... I’m gradually, slowly, tidying up each room one at a time SQUATTER TOM
MEET Britain’s luckiest squatter, who lives in a run-down grand hotel – all on his own.
Tom, 30, moved into the Grosvenor Hotel one day when he pushed at a door and it opened.
The 150-year-old hotel in Bristol, near Temple Meads station, has been left unused for about two decades, with rotting furniture filling the rooms and graffiti covering the walls.
Tom has since started living in the building, which was built in 1875 but has fallen into a serious state of disrepair – and has started doing it up.
Every night he climbs the grand staircase to use one of the various rooms – all of which he has started tidying up and making habitable.
He does have to dodge precarious floors and beware of nonexistent ceilings.
Tom has created a living room with a sofa, a table and a few chairs and has cleared some of the junk off the floor – and is even painting a few of the walls.
He said: “You can tell this place used to be the real crème de la crème.
“The dark mahogany wood, the wallpaper, the ornateness around the high ceilings, the detailed work... there is so much heritage here.
“The people who have come through this place are amazing.
“This is a wonderful building, there’s loads to it I really enjoy, and to have a safe space inside.’’
Tom grew up in Hertfordshire and has lived in Bristol for six weeks, struggling to find any official support after leaving rehab.
He said: “I had found a key card down an alleyway and it just happened that when I used it on the swipe, the door opened. But the door was already open.
“I thought it was to do with the key card, but it really wasn’t.
“I’m gradually, slowly, tidying up each room one at a time.
The building is caught in a planning row and Tom could be the last-ever resident of the Grosvenor Hotel.
The long-running saga of the “eyesore” reached its latest chapter last week.
A report updated Bristol City Council plans to use a compulsory purchase order to acquire the former hotel in order to redevelop the land on which it is located.
A ‘decision pathway’ submitted to cabinet includes plans for a joint development and land agreement for the development of the Temple Square site – including another former hotel, the George & Railway – and the purchase of Station Approach, as well as the proposed acquisition of land at Temple Square, including the former Grosvenor Hotel.
The proposed compulsory purchase order for the Grosvenor is part of a scheme expected to cost between £16.67 million and £19.67m promised to deliver “significant city benefits… as an outcome of the long-term economic growth driven by the George and Railway project alongside the wider regeneration achieved through a joint development and land agreement”.
A decision on the future of the land and the buildings sitting on it – once bisected by a famous flyover – will be taken by the cabinet.
City council senior development surveyor, Jan Reichel, said in her report: “The development will have the potential to achieve high sustainability outcomes, based on design proposals and the excellent accessibility of the developments at the heart of the Temple Quarter and near to Temple Meads Station.”
The council wants to buy land at Temple Square, including the former Grosvenor Hotel, “to support the wider redevelopment and regeneration of the Temple Quarter area”.