by Torben Lee

A world-famous Banksy mural in Stokes Croft, Bristol, is being brought under cover – and, some say, partially obscured from public view.

On Wednesday night Bristol City Council’s development control (central) committee approved plans that will see the mural housed in a glassed cafe area in front of a new block of flats.

The mysterious graffiti artist’s 1999 artwork Mild Mild West is on the bricked side wall of a barber’s shop.

It shows a teddy bear aiming a Molotov cocktail at three riot police officers.

As exclusively revealed in the Bristol Post earlier this week, architect Nick Childs, chairman of the Bristol Urban Design Forum, has told planning officials he considered the move to “privatise” the space containing the Banksy mural a huge loss to the people of Bristol.

White Design, agents for the developers, insist the public will not only be able to walk in and out of the glassed area to enjoy one of the earliest examples of Banksy’s work, they will also be able to see it through the glass from outside, they say.

Councillors largely ignored the issue when they considered the plans to convert mainly empty offices between Stokes Croft and City Road into 79 homes (mostly flats), offices, a cafe and a shop.

The steps in front of Finance House, which is set back from the streetline in Stokes Croft, encouraged anti-social behaviour, the committee heard.

Officers said this might continue unless the so-called Winter Garden – a large, timber-frame structure with glass walls – was included in the scheme along its Stokes Croft frontage.

Councillor Dennis Brown (Lib Dem, Henleaze) feared the Winter Garden, which will be ventilated, would be “a greenhouse” – cold in winter but too hot in the summer.

Fellow Liberal Democrat Jim White (Redland) said it was “a big irony” that among the council’s financial demands of developers Connolly and Callaghan, of Stokes Croft, was a £50,000 contribution for public art.

“We got some public art free from Banksy. And the one we got from him was worth infinitely more,” said Councillor White.

But, like the rest of the committee, he backed the overall scheme.

Mr White did, however, point out that – as things stood – the corner of Stokes Croft and City Road, which is not part of the scheme, would remain an eyesore.

The committee asked Bristol City Council officers to investigate the possibility that the £50,000 for public art and other funds in the planning agreement with the developers could be used to brighten up this corner.