The fire which has gutted the Grosvenor Hotel opposite Temple Meads in the centre of Bristol is the latest in a long saga of events to befall the hotel since it welcomed its last paying guest almost 40 years ago.
But the bizarre saga has been played out not at the building itself, which has suffered a gradual decline from landmark hotel at the gateway to Bristol, through hostel for homeless people and then a derelict playground for urban explorers and a roof for squatters.
It has been in the offices of estate agents, property developers and bank vaults of Dubai that the Grosvenor Hotel has played a starring - albeit entirely hypothetical - role over the past few years. For while the building has decayed as Bristol City Council labour to seize control of it with a compulsory purchase order, it’s been the subject of one of the more incredible court cases the British legal system has seen this century.
