The last surviving pub in Bristol suburb to reopen under ambitious new owners

Two Bristol musicians plan to take over a derelict city pub and turn it into a thriving community hub. Tara Clerkin and Sunny Paradisos have lived in Bristol for the past 15 years and are well established on the local music scene.

Tara and Sunny have long harboured a dream of opening a pub and music venue and have looked at several properties in recent years. But they have now agreed terms with the owner of The Rhubarb Tavern, the last remaining pub in Barton Hill, which has been closed and empty since 2020.

The Queen Ann Road pub, parts of which date back to the 17th century, is owned by London-based developers Natan Ltd, which had submitted a planning application to convert the pub into six flats and eight apartments in a new three-storey building in the garden at the rear. The planning application was withdrawn in 2021 after residents and the We Love The Rhubarb campaign group tried to save the neighbourhood’s last remaining pub.

Although the developers still have long-term plans for the new building in the garden, they have agreed to lease the main building to Tara and Sunny for them to reopen as a pub. With its historic Victorian facade, The Rhubarb Tavern is widely regarded by pub enthusiasts as one of the city’s last remaining hidden gems and Tara and Sunny say they have big plans for the place.

Sunny says: “We’ve wanted to take over a pub for years and our plan was always to have a music venue as part of it.

“We’ve been involved in the Bristol music scene for a number of years and it has been great to us and really nurtured us so we want to give back to the scene as there are venues closing and it’s tough for local bands as the creative industry gets so little support.

“We’d looked at a few pubs but they go quickly and a lot of places are being developed into housing but then we saw The Rhubarb Tavern.”

Sunny says the owners had bought the pub just before the pandemic so the timing for redevelopment hadn’t been in their favour and although there are still plans to build apartments in the garden, they will be taking the full lease for the pub and its upstairs rooms.

“The terms are agreed and the owner has allowed us a couple of months to crowdfund. If we hit our target, we’ll sign the lease, the owner will do some repairs to the building to make it watertight and we’ll do the rest.

“It has been a gradual process and it’s quite daunting but it seems increasingly likely now. We’re aiming to crowdfund between £40k-£60k to renovate it and get the business up and running.

“We’ll do most of the work ourselves and a lot of people have expressed an interest in volunteering so it will be all hands on deck. We have also been promised free rent for the first ten months, which is a big help and gives us time to get things up and running. We have a lot of ideas for the place and we’re passionate that it’s first and foremost a community space as it was built as a public house.

“Although drinking will be a part of it, it won’t be centred around that because there is an increasing number of non-drinking people in the area.

“A lot of Gen Zs don’t drink and the demographic of the area has shifted a lot so there’s a large Muslim population here, too. We want Muslims to come to the place and use it - it will be a community hub and it should be for everyone to use and enjoy.”

Sunny says they also plan to have their own microbrewery at the pub and run music studios and pottery workshops.

“We have lots of ideas but we’ll also ask local people what they want. We want to collaborate with local food traders who can do pop-ups in the kitchen and we want to partner with as many local businesses as we can so it’s almost like a community centre in a pub.”

The crowdfunder will launch later this month and if all goes to plan, The Rhubarb Tavern will reopen in Spring 2024.