Nothing done yet with ‘love locks’ despite promise for artwork

Nothing has been done yet with the hundreds of ‘love locks’ taken off of Pero’s Bridge despite the promise of a new artwork.

Bristol City Council in 2025 removed the padlocks from the footbridge in the city centre and pledged to transform them into a piece of art.

This hasn’t happened yet and there is no money budgeted for it. The pledge was partly made as people who had attached locks, to commemorate their love, were “quite upset” at their removal.

But now extra cash is available, as the bridge doesn’t need as much repairs as initially thought.

However this money won’t be spent on creating the promised artwork. It’s unclear when, or if, the artwork will be made. Meanwhile new locks are still being attached.

An update on a recent structural survey of the bridge was given to the harbour committee on Tuesday.

Cliff Brand, head of service for the Bristol Harbour Authority, said: “All of the locks have been removed. But I’m told people are continuing to put them on every now and again, despite their removal.

“Following a structural survey the bridge itself is being described in a reasonable to good condition. It’s not as bad as we thought it was.

“We will negate the need to spend the money which we envisaged spending on it. So that’s good news.”

The ‘love locks’ were first removed from Pero’s Bridge in August – photo: Martin Booth

Padlocks were attached to the bridge as a popular and romantic way for couples to symbolise their attachment to each other, as well as for bereaved relatives to remember loved ones who passed away. The practice is common in bridges in many cities around the world.

But the combined weight of lots of locks ends up damaging the structural integrity of the bridge.

This was the case at Pero’s Bridge, over which police officers have been banned from riding horses, due to similar concerns about the heavy weight damaging the structure.

Green councillor Ani Townsend said: “By not having to spend that money on the bridge, could we use some of that money to do something with the locks that we’ve removed to create a piece of public art, that would perhaps encourage people to attach other locks to that, rather than to the bridge?

“It would save us money long-term and encourage people to put them somewhere else and not have to keep removing them continuously. Who’s going to pay for doing something with them [the padlocks] is where we’re sticking.

“I work closely with the arts and culture team. There’s a range of things that we’ve talked about which we could do. We just don’t have the money to do it. People did get quite upset, understandably, about us removing them.”

Pero’s Bridge is now (mostly) free of ‘love locks’ – photo: Betty Woolerton

The bridge opened in 1999 and was named after Pero Jones, who was enslaved and lived in Bristol in the 18th century.

Locks were removed by the council a decade ago, but people then attached new ones and the bridge was covered again within a few years.

Originally the council budgeted £200,000 for the bridge, but ended up only spending £60,000. It’s unclear where the extra £140,000 will be spent instead.

Brand added: “I think the proposal is good, however it wouldn’t fall within my remit to make that decision.

“The money which has been earmarked for Pero’s Bridge, which we probably will not spend, I would go as far to say that there are other calls on those particular funds.

“The suggestion was originally that we would remove all the locks and then do something with them.”

Liberal Democrat councillor Andrew Brown, chair of the harbour committee, added: “Having stood in front of the press and said ‘we are going to do something with all these locks that we’ve taken off’ —and then we’ve not managed to do anything yet — I would like to see something done.”

Alex Seabrook is a local democracy reporter for Bristol

Main photo: Martin Booth

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