Lloyds Bank's iconic former Bristol headquarters acquired

By Peter Davison

3 August 2023

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Canons House - Image reproduced under Creative Commons licence

The former Bristol harbourside office of Lloyds Bank has been acquired.

London-based real estate firm Longstock Capital and investment firm Mactaggart Family and Partners have purchased the 190,000 sq ft Canons House for an undisclosed sum.

Posting a joint statement on LinkedIn this afternoon (Wednesday) the firms said: "Our partnership will embark on the restoration of this characterful, freehold, campus-style asset via a comprehensive ESG retrofit that targets EPC A and BREEAM Outstanding accreditation.

"Delivery is anticipated in 2025.

"Bristol’s robust occupational market fundamentals, coupled with increasingly attractive pricing in the office sector and our understanding of the requirements of the contemporary office, make Canons House a natural choice to expand our collaboration."

The firms thanked Lloyds for "trusting us to be the new custodian of this celebrated building."

They added: "We look forward to working with local stakeholders to reimagine Canons House as a truly differentiated occupational solution of which Bristol can be rightfully proud."

The crescent-shaped building was built as a regional headquarters for Lloyds between 1988 and 1991. More than 2,000 people were employed at Canons House, but staff moved out in 2022 and the building was put up for sale.

Canons House was a key part of the redevelopment of Canons Marsh in the late 1980s. It replaced old tobacco bonds built by the Wills family in the 1920s, which were demolished with controlled explosions in 1988.

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In 2022 Canons House was granted Grade II listed status by Historic England, who called it a "beacon in the post-industrial redevelopment of Bristol’s docks and the regeneration of the derelict harbourside as a thriving recreation and cultural centre," and "a 20th century landmark."

In recent years its amphitheatre has been the venue for live music concerts.

Image reproduced under Creative Commons licence

By Peter Davison

Peter Davison is deputy editor of The Business Magazine. He has spent his life in journalism – doing work experience in newsrooms in and around Bristol while still at school, and landing his first job on a local newspaper aged 19. By 28 he was the youngest newspaper editor in the country.

An early advocate of online news, he spent the first years of the 2000s telling his bosses that the internet posed both the biggest opportunity and greatest threat to the newspaper industry and the art of journalism. He was right on both counts.

Since 2006 he has enjoyed a career as a freelance journalist. He lives in rural Wiltshire with one wife, two children, and three cats.