Mercure Bristol Brigstow Hotel, Welsh Back

The Mercure Brigstow is a riverside hotel in central Bristol, a short walk from Bristol Bridge and the University of Bristol riverside student accommodation. It has been used as Home Office contingency accommodation since at least early 2022, with Bristol247 reporting that the four star site was being used to temporarily house asylum seekers while their claims are processed^[2]Press.

BristolWorld reported that almost 250 male asylum seekers were being kept at the Brigstow under the Asylum Dispersal Programme, describing the headcount and the Home Office decision to keep the site in long term contingency use rather than moving residents into dispersal flats and houses^[1]Press.

In August 2025 ITV News West Country reported that 802 asylum seekers were staying in Bristol hotels at the end of June 2025, including the Mercure Brigstow. Bristol City Council publicly refused to join the wave of councils seeking to remove asylum hotels from their patches, with the leader citing the city's long history as a place of sanctuary^[3]Broadcast.

At the £170 per person per night Migration Observatory benchmark^[4], a 250 person headcount at the Brigstow implies headline taxpayer exposure of about £42,500 per night and roughly £15.5 million per year. The May 2025 NAO contract review put the average per hotel run rate across the wider portfolio at about £5.84 million per year^[5]NAO.