Hotel Gotham Bristol

Bristol's long-closed Guildhall and former law courts is being converted into a 75-room Hotel Gotham, the maximalist boutique brand's third UK property after Manchester and Newcastle. Restaurant and rooftop bar are confirmed for a heritage-listed Old City landmark that has sat empty since 2010, though the opening date has already slipped more than once.

The place

The hotel occupies the Guildhall on Broad Street and Small Street in the Old City, a heritage-listed building that formerly housed Bristol's law courts and an earlier Bank of England building, and which has stood closed since 2010.

The concept

Hotel Gotham Bristol will be the third property in the Gotham Collection, following the flamboyant original in Manchester and a Newcastle outpost. Developer Trevor Osborne Group began work on site in mid-2020, and architects Nash Partnership — working through a complex listed-building consent process — reworked the former courts into a boutique hotel layout of around 75 keys, preserving original elements such as the old courtrooms and vaulted basements, now repurposed as food-and-beverage space. Interior design is by squid.inc, applying the Gotham brand's signature maximalist, art-deco-inflected style — described in coverage as 'glitzy, ambitious, unapologetically opulent' — to a genuinely historic civic building rather than a purpose-built shell. The project has slipped repeatedly, from an originally floated late-2024 opening to spring, then a currently stated late-summer 2026 date on the operator's own site — worth bearing in mind for anyone booking ahead of an official confirmation.

Dining & wellness

The scheme includes a restaurant and a rooftop terrace bar; earlier press coverage also mentioned a spa, though that has not been confirmed on the operator's own site, so treat it as unverified for now.