Liverpool City Council have given permission for the demolition of The Bridge Inn, Childwall Valley Road, Belle Vale.

The current building was built in 1938 for Higson’s, replacing an older pub and it is possible there has been a building on the site from 1710. The new building was designed by local architect Harold Hinchcliffe Davies (1900-1960), who grew up in Orient Drive, Woolton. At the time the building was described as a 'luxurious hotel in the Art & Crafts style'. Higson’s built the new pub to take advantage of its closeness to a planned major road junction formed by the intersection of the new Childwall Valley Road (which was intended to continue as far as Warrington) and Kings Drive (a proposed Outer Circle route from Garston to Crosby). Neither of these road schemes were fully completed, and only part of the outer Circle, Kings Drive, was built.

After the demise of Higson’s, The Bridge Inn eventually ended up in the hands of private equity company Patron Capital, and it was closed in 2015 and put up for sale. Plans to demolish the pub and replace it with a small superstore were submitted to Liverpool City Council in 2016. There was some local opposition to the proposed redevelopment, but a spokesperson for the owner and developer at the time claimed that the inn had “no viable long-term future”. That spokesperson also said the pub had only remained open because the owner had been offering discount rents to ensure the building remained occupied. A familiar story often told before many local pubs are redeveloped.

In September 2020, Liverpool Council’s planning committee approved proposals for the development of a 2273 square meter branch of Home Bargains on the site. These plans have now been fully approved and the Bridge Inn will be lost.

Patron Capital’s published strategy is: “opportunistic and value-oriented, primarily targeting challenged assets such as distressed and/or undervalued property and property-related assets, loans and corporate entities.”. In other words, “we will buy something, sit on it until it is run down, then we will flog it off for redevelopment under the pretext no-one loves it”.

The Bridge Inn will not be the last local pub to undergo this sad end. In 2017 Patron and Heineken joined forces to buy Punch Taverns for £1.8bn. That deal gave Patron Capital 1,300 tenanted pubs, while Heineken had close to 1,900. Patron has a policy of disposing of what it calls “non-core assets”, in other words “if it’s not making us money it’s going”. Other pub owning groups have similar strategies.

The current pandemic will be used by pub companies and others as an excuse to close and sell off pubs. They will say they are “unviable”. Don’t let it happen. If you are worried your local pubs are under threat of closure contact your councillor and send them a copy of, or a link to, CAMRAs planning information for councils. Don’t let the developers pull the wool over the eyes of your representatives. If you are concerned that your local may be in danger, please contact Liverpool & District CAMRA. The Campaign has lots of help and advice available. Contact: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

(Image: Google Street View)