Your say / Hospitality
‘Every time you choose a chain over an independent, another small part of Bristol dies’
Bristol is at a crossroads. More national and international chains are arriving while local businesses shut up shop.
If things carry on as they are, our city’s high streets will no longer be a beacon of independence but a beige identikit parade of blandness.
I can see the comments underneath this piece now: ‘market forces’, ‘capitalism’, ‘Blank Street’s matcha is actually quite nice’, ‘why do you always pick on Gail’s?’
But every time you choose an independent over a chain, another small part of Bristol dies.
Bristol has long been lauded for our independent spirit but it is remarkable how swiftly that is being eroded.
As more tall buildings transform the skyline, at ground level there are some extremely worrying developments.
In just one day recently, the Orchard cafe in St George, the Social bar and restaurant on Cheltenham Road, and Geppetto’s pizzeria in Easton all announced they would be closing.
These imminent closures also came in the same week that Pizza Pilgrims opened in the former Stanfords bookshop on Corn Street; one of 30 locations the growing chain now has across the UK.
The day after these sad – and, in the case of the Orchard being replaced by a church, completely baffling – announcements, I too was at a crossroads.
I had half an hour to kill while a wash was on at the laundrette on Park Place in Clifton. And my choices of where to spend my money were a snapshot of Bristol right now.
The laundrette is across the road from plucky independent Root & Ember and a few hundred yards away from a Little Waitrose, who recently opened another shop at the start of Gloucester Road – a street which once upon a time was said to have the longest stretch of independent shops in Europe.
Caffè Nero is located between Spicer & Cole at the RWA, Two Ways on Queen’s Avenue and Little Bagel Co. on Queen’s Road. Guess which one is always busy.
So pick, for example, Bertha’s Pizza over Pizza Pilgrims; and small local businesses over the incoming influx of chains.
Because if you don’t, more of your favourite independent places which make our city so special will be forced to call it a day.
A lower rate of VAT will of course also help the hospitality sector but we can all do our bit if we can by supporting indies over chains if we want Bristol to retain its unique identity.
This is an opinion piece by Martin Booth, Editor of Bristol24/7
Main photo: Martin Booth
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