Last butcher shop in Bristol suburb to close after more than a century trading

A Bristol butchers shop that has been trading for more than 100 years has announced its closure.

Sandy Park Butchers in Brislington will shut its doors for good on July 29 due to the retirement of owner Steve Cooper and his wife, Mary, who have run the shop for the past ten years. The shop has been bought by a local chef and will be turned into an Indian restaurant, marking the end of a century as a butchers.

It will also see the closure of the last butchers shop in Brislington, Totterdown and Knowle, with the nearest independent butchers now in Bedminster. Steve Cooper, 66, has been a butcher since he left school at the age of 15, originally training as a butcher at the Fine Fare supermarket in Broadmead in the early 1970s.

He said: “There were ten boys starting as butcher apprentices on the same day but you wouldn’t get that now. Youngsters aren’t getting into this business now so I do think it’s the end of the line for local butchers, they’re all going and nobody is taking them on.

“We used to have a shop in North Street, Bedminster, and there were three butchers shops close to each other - there’s only one now.”

As I talk to Steve in his shop, only one customer comes in to buy some meat and the owner says business hasn’t been the same since the pandemic.

“We stayed open throughout the pandemic and we had long queues outside because people could only shop locally but as soon as it got back to normal, they all went back to using the supermarkets,” he said.

“The supermarkets have had a huge impact on small local butchers but that’s part of life. I could be giving away gold bars in the shop but still nobody would know if they don’t come in and have a look!”

Steve says he and his wife, and butcher Matt Towells, have been surprised at the reaction from loyal customers sad at the closure. He said: “It makes me very proud that the shop means so much to people - one poor lady almost had a seizure when we told her the news. “We’re lucky to have some good customers and we’ve built friendships with lots of local families.”

Steve now plans to have a well-earned rest after 51 years of early mornings and standing in cold butchers shops.

“I won’t miss the winter mornings, that’s for sure, but I will miss the job and things like organising the front window display. We’ve had a good time but we haven’t had a holiday for ages so now’s the time.”