New plans unveiled to demolish historic Bristol music shop for seven-storey building

New plans have been unveiled to demolish a historic Bristol music shop for a seven-storey building.   

Mickleburgh Musical Instruments has submitted a planning application to replace its current 120-year-old site on Stokes Croft with a new ‘music hub’ and student flats above.   

This comes after original proposals submitted in April 2023 to build a 11-storey building in place of the long-running shop were met with concern.     

In the latest proposals, the top four floors of the building have been removed and the number of student bedrooms reduced from 192 to 126.  

The 'King Square Avenue' development is in partnership with residential property developer Colico Living, with the student accommodation on the upper floors of the building to include co-working areas, lounges, a cinema room and games areas.

Mickleburgh’s new space will be a ‘music hub’ with a piano showroom and music shop as well as performance and event space, practice and tuition rooms and recording studios. 

The independent, family-run business also intends to create and run a new live music venue in the basement, offering a range of intimate gigs and performances. 

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Michael Barnfield, owner of Mickleburgh said: “Stokes Croft is a vibrant cultural quarter; we love being a part of it and want to find a solution that will both enable us to stay in central Bristol and also provide much welcomed expanded state of the art space for live music performance.

“Our building is no longer fit for modern day retailing, the maze of corridors and rooms is not ideal for the shopper or us!"

"We know we must adapt to survive in the high street. We want to keep our core business of retailing musical instruments, but by providing a small live event space and music hub, our customers will meet other musicians, form bands, orchestras, quartets, choirs etc.  

“We hope also to be able to provide the practice space to satisfy increasing demand from the growing number of city centre resident musicians who may not easily be able to practice within their accommodation, due to space and noise constraints.

“Without the partnership with CoLico Living, we would not be able to invest in diversifying the business, and it is this which will enable us to survive for many more years to come.”  Mickleburgh opened on Stokes Croft in 1903 and currently sells musical instruments, accessories and electronic equipment.

More information about the proposals and how they have changed can be found at: sites.google.com/view/king-square-avenue