Iconic Bristol restaurant Glassboat is for sale after 36 years. The floating restaurant moored in Welsh Back was turned into the Fish seafood restaurant and takeaway during the pandemic but has remained closed for several months.
Glassboat was built in 1986 by Arne Ringner, who also owns the Lido restaurant, pool and spa in Clifton, and the Three Brothers burger restaurant on Welsh Back. Ringner’s original plan was to create a floating botanical garden on the former barge, having moved to the UK from his native Sweden.
After Bristol’s planners turned down that idea, Ringner and his business partner, Magnus Macdonald, were forced to open a floating café instead and it soon became one of Bristol’s most popular restaurant. The Glassboat was the city’s premier fine dining restaurant from the late 1980s through to the 2000s.
