Update: 4th June 2021

We smashed our target with your support!

A brief update to thank everyone for their support for our new premises crowdfunding campaign. The Crowdfunder successfully raised an incredible £43,311 with 606 supporters in 29 days.

What happens next?

We will be finalising our move date over the coming weeks and will share details on social media, online and in our regular newsletters.

We can’t wait to see our new forever home transformed into a bustling, thriving workshop for the whole community and hope that many of you will be able to come and visit us in the new space.

Love Team BBP x

Why Are We Crowdfunding?

Bristol’s property market makes it incredibly difficult for independent community projects like ours to find secure and affordable premises. Our current home in Hamilton House is being redeveloped and we need to move out this Summer.

After a long search we’ve found the perfect place, right in the heart of our community. The building has incredible potential but we need your support to refurbish and kit out the space so it can become the community hub of our dreams. It’s currently a shell!

We have completed the purchase of Tovey’s Seafood – 198-200 Stapleton Rd, Easton.

It has a large shop space big enough for our community shop to thrive, bringing affordable repairs and bike servicing to Stapleton Road, and a huge space in the back (formerly for preparing fish!) where we can recreate our bustling community workshop.

The space is considerably larger than our current workshop so, with your help, we’ll be able to expand our oversubscribed community programmes getting more bikes to more people who really need access to affordable, healthy and sustainable transport!

We’re raising £35,000 to cover:

• The refurbishment and fit out of our community workshop – making it a well-equipped, fit for purpose space for everyone
• Workbenches, tool boards, cladding, cupboards, bike storage etc.
• Signage and a mural – we want to make sure people know who we are, why we’re here and all the ways they can get involved
• Decor – making the space feel welcoming and friendly for everyone

How Far have we come?

From humble beginnings, working out of a back garden, The Bristol Bike Project has grown into a dynamic community hub. We welcome hundreds of people through our doors each week, whether they’re taking part in our community programmes, volunteering, learning bike maintenance, or just having a cup of tea and a chat!

We are a comprehensive community bike project, repairing and rehoming unwanted bikes. We aim to help people from all walks of life get out on two wheels and for it to be an inclusive and empowering experience.

The Bristol Bike Project was born in 2008 when two friends returned from their first cycling tour with a new-found love of bikes and a desire to help their community. They had identified a need for affordable transport amongst Asylum Seekers in Bristol. We soon opened our doors to people from all walks of life, including people with mental health issues, recovering from substance addiction, as well as those in supported/sheltered housing. We now get referrals from over fifty organisations in and around Bristol.

We are proud to be a co-operative, valuing people over profit and putting our members at the heart of decision-making. What do our members want most? A secure and long term home! When we found out we had to move out of Hamilton House (our home of 11 years) we were pretty worried, we began searching for a place to buy, but Bristol’s property market is tough especially for not-for-profit organisations.

Then Covid struck! Within 24 hours we’d redesigned all our workshops and completely overhauled shop operations. The passion and creativity of our staff and volunteers enabled us to manoeuvre quickly to find new ways to support our community. We focused our efforts on selling and repairing bikes for key workers, and continued to support people who relied on our community programmes through offering drop off bikes and repairs.

Through years rehoming bikes with people, we know just how important access to a bike can be for our mental and physical wellbeing – not to mention getting around in an affordable way. These needs don’t go away in a public health crisis; if anything, they become more acute.

Covid set us back financially and held up many elements of our move. But, after two long years of searching we are extremely proud to say that we’ve found the perfect place!

Tovey’s Seafood closed it’s doors Christmas 2019, the previous owners, who ran a fishmonger’s there since 1962, were happy to pass the shop on to another independent business.

It’s always been a dream to own our own building, for our own long term security and to safeguard space on our local high street for community use.

We really need your support!

We’ve searched high and low for the perfect premises for over two years and worked really hard to raise the funds to purchase our own building.

We’ve purchased an amazing site in the heart of our community, but we can only transform it into a community bike workshop with your help!

Whatever form it takes, your support and contributions will be hugely appreciated. You can support us by: 

• pledging – however large or small, every bit counts
• sharing our Crowdfunder campaign on social media 
• telling your friends and getting the word out

Thank you for reading and for your support – spread the word and see you soon!

Love from The Bristol Bike Project