It is probably the best known – and most photographed – Banksy artwork in Bristol but now the famous Well Hung Lover is up for sale, along with the building it’s painted on, is to be sold at an auction next year.
The artwork, which is best seen from the bridge at the bottom of Park Street in Bristol city centre, features a naked man hanging from a window as he hides from a man searching for him, with a woman in her underwear looks on.
It was painted by Banksy in the summer of 2006 on the side of what was then a sexual health clinic, and has been credited with triggering a huge shift in attitudes to street art from the city authorities, who at the time were engaged in an ongoing battle with graffiti artists in the city.
Banksy painted the mural right opposite the City Hall headquarters of Bristol City Council, and the council were going to remove it until council chiefs created an online poll asking residents if they wanted to keep it – and 97 per cent of people supported it staying.
The work, which has been defaced a couple of times in the 18 years since, is now the most commonly-visited Banksy in Bristol, given its close proximity to the city centre, and has regularly featured in events like the Bristol Light Festival.
Now, the building it is painted on to is up for sale – but the owners selling it are going to great lengths to make sure it isn’t bought by someone who wants to remove it and sell it on separately. The estate agent preparing to sell the building with a new 250-year lease at an auction in February is Hollis Morgan. A spokesperson said whoever bought it would have to agree to a restrictive covenant in the lease stipulating that it must never been removed.
The building itself is being marketed as a five-bedroom house with development opportunity, with an initial guide price of £700,000. The five-storey building is actually at number 1 Unity Street, just on a side road off Park Street. The ground-floor shop premises has been the home of Bristol Festivals, the registered charity that supports and advocates for the festival and events community in Bristol, for almost 10 years – after it took over the premises from the Brook sexual health clinic.
A spokesperson for Hollis Morgan said the building was a Grade II listed Georgian terraced property with accommodation over five floors. “The basement is self contained and operates as a nightclub, whilst the upper floors are vacant and have been most recently occupied as offices and clinic,” he said. “The vacant upper floors offer scope for a residential conversion.”
There was a plan to convert this into a high-density student accommodation building for 14 students, but this was refused planning permission by city council planners. The nightclub lease expires at the end of 2032.
Hollis Morgan said the Banksy would be protected in the sale. “There is no official Bristol City Council policy with regard to street art, whether by Banksy or others, as it is recognised that street art is created not as a permanent work of art but as a form of protest which is usually, but not always, created illegally and without the permission of the owner of the building,” a spokesperson said.
“As such, the life of any image as a work of art will evolve and change over time depending on how the work weathers or indeed is subsequently painted over or removed. Accordingly the purchaser will be required to accept a restrictive covenant in the lease ensuring that the image cannot be removed from the building, however, the vendor will not require a positive obligation on the purchaser to maintain the artwork or insure it for as long as it shall remain visible and in place on the building,” they added.
It won’t be the first high profile Banksy work to be sold recently. Last week, the building in Stokes Croft onto which Banksy painted the famous ‘Mild Mild West’ mural back in 1999, was sold at auction.