Beazer House, an office block on Lower Bristol Road in Bath once home to the iconic crane-makers Stothert & Pitt, has been demolished, leaving behind a large empty site. Stothert & Pitt was renowned for manufacturing the cranes seen at Bristol’s M-Shed harbourside. Their former crane works across the road have been revitalized as the Newark Works office development, but Beazer House did not share the same fate.
Constructed in the 1960s, Beazer House had long been criticized as “one of Bath’s least attractive buildings.” With limited support for preserving or repurposing it, planning permission was granted in 2024 to demolish the office block and replace it with a new Premier Inn hotel. Today, Beazer House exists only as a conspicuous hole in the ground.
The planned hotel will offer 152 rooms and is expected to create over 30 new jobs in the local area. This new Premier Inn will be Bath’s second, complementing an existing branch just a ten-minute walk away on James Street West.
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Interestingly, the initial planning application referred to the project simply as “New Bath Hotel,” without specifying the operator. It later emerged that Premier Inn would manage the hotel after they applied for a license to run the bar onsite. Currently, the council is reviewing a planning application for Premier Inn’s signage outside the new hotel.