‘Suspicious’ wine bar and shop to open in Clifton despite concerns it will become a pub

A new wine bar and shop in Clifton Village has been granted a premises licence despite objections from residents.

Clifton Cellars was given the go-ahead by Bristol city councillors to sell alcohol and late-night refreshments at a building in The Mall from 10am to 11pm from Sunday to Thursday and until midnight on Fridays and Saturdays.

Neighbours urged the panel to refuse the licence and said they did not accept advice the applicants had received that planning permission for a change of use was not needed.

Don Shapland, of Waterloo Street, told licensing sub-committee members the application had not been advertised properly and that notices on the Grade II*-listed building differed from the one on the council’s website because they did not include the words ‘wine bar’ to make clear what it would be.

“This was suspicious. I don’t understand why they would not simply copy the application onto a notice and stick it on the window rather than laboriously type up a new notice omitting the words ‘wine bar’ unless it was intended to deceive,” he said.

A city council licensing officer told the meeting on Thursday, November 11, that the application had been advertised correctly and that the legislation did not require the notice to include the words ‘wine bar’, only the nature of the licensed activities.

Dr Shapland said: “I object to the application on the grounds of public nuisance, noise, vibration, lighting and litter.

“This will be establishing effectively a pub in a residential street.

“There will be large numbers of people in there until gone midnight.

“There has already been a lot of work taking place but there does not appear to be a listed building application.

“I don’t accept that there is no need for a change of use. It is currently retail and will change to a wine bar.”

RoseMary Musgrave, of Clifton And Hotwells Improvement Society, said residents were concerned the late-night refreshments licence, which is required for hot food and drink after 11pm, could mean takeaways or home deliveries.

Solicitor Jeremey Woodcraft, representing applicants 22 The Mall, offered more conditions to satisfy neighbours’ concerns, including no food to be taken off the premises and reducing licensed hours from midnight to 11pm on weeknights.

He told members: “It’s a wine bar/wine shop but this is not a wine bar in the way we may think about it in the 1980s

“This is very much an idea to promote wine. It’s a new concept to expand the horizons of people’s tastes of wine, the countries from which they buy wine and to introduce new people to wine as a concept.”

He said Bristol wine merchant Charles Lucas had made the project his passion and that a significant amount of money had been spent on it.

He said food would only be provided occasionally during wine-pairing events with local chefs.

“The advice we have received is that a planning change-of-use is not necessary,” Mr Woodcraft said.

The sub-committee approved the licence unanimously with the proposed conditions plus an additional one to make contact details available to residents to raise any issues.