Bristol: Fresh plans for disused Art Deco cinema face opposition

Residents are angry at the plans for the Redfield cinema on Church Road

A developer has submitted fresh plans to turn a disused Art Deco cinema into multi-occupancy housing, despite fierce opposition from residents.

Landrose wants to turn the old Redfield Cinema on Church Road in Bristol into 44 en-suite bedroom units and a commercial gym.

The units would be divided into 13 sections sharing a communal kitchen.

The application, submitted on 22 December, has so far received more than 130 objections.

Last year, Landrose withdrew its original plan to turn the site into 14 flats and a gym after it received more than 900 objections.

But campaigners say the updated designs are not much better, and many want to see the cinema restored to use.

The 130-seater cinema is mostly still intact

One objector to the development said the Wetherspoons pub beneath the cinema had acted as a community space, hosting a parent, carer and toddler group and a retired men's group.

"The vast bulk of the site has been used as a place of entertainment or recreation and leisure, providing evening and daytime activity in Church Road and meeting the social wellbeing and social interests of the local community, in various guises, for 110 years," they said.

"Landrose's plans will, if implemented, effectively terminate any meaningful social wellbeing or social interest on the bulk of the site for the first time in 110 years.

'A criminal act'

"The nature of the conversion will make turning the site back into any kind of community or leisure use impossible."

The cinema first opened as a silent movie theatre in 1912, reopening in 1927 as the Granada cinema.

It was more recently used as a Wetherspoons pub until it closed in 2021. The 130-seater cinema upstairs remains mostly intact.

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