Barge bought by cash-strapped Bristol City Council for £1.4m now being broken up for scrap

Bristol City Council had originally hoped to sell the Ebenhaezer to recoup their hefty investment - which at the time was described as a “ransom”. But surveys revealed the 137ft-long vessel was in such a poor condition that it was no longer safe for it to remain in the harbour.

Ebenhaezer is now in the Albion dry dock and appearing less solid by the day as it is dismantled so that its individual parts can be reused and recycled. After it left its berth next to Welsh Back, it was moored near Bristol Bridge before being moved next to the SS Great Britain.

In December, a Bristol City Council spokesperson said that Ebenhaezer was “no longer in a condition to safely remain moored in the Floating Harbour”. It added that “costs to repair the barge to make it good enough to travel safely on the water far outweigh what its value would be once restored to such a condition”.

It comes as work appears to have stalled at the location where the city council paid the “ransom” back in 2019. The local authority bought the barge and its prize mooring rights from a private owner because it was in the way of a development of former warehouses.

Developers said they would not go ahead with the regeneration of the buildings if the boat was still there, with council officers saying that buying Ebenhaezer and its mooring rights was the most cost-effective way to break the impasse. The fear was that if developers pulled out of the deal, the council would need to pay to repair the largely derelict buildings anyway.

Originally due to be three restaurants, O and M sheds are still due to be turned into BoxHall – which was first meant to open in summer 2023 – but there have been numerous delays with no work taking place at all in recent months.