It was only ever meant to be a temporary arrangement under the now defunct Capacity scheme, a regeneration project which aimed to open up empty and underused buildings for creative uses.

But it is still sad news indeed that The Parlour on College Green is set to close after a commercial tenant was found for the property owned by Bristol City Council and a community asset transfer bid that would have secured the venue for its current use was declined.

In the last year, The Parlour Showrooms on the ground floor has hosted 63 exhibitions, 110 events and 52 performances. This has supported 34 organisations, 457 individuals and contributed to 15 festivals.

Upstairs, The Parlour supports 26 artists and five arts organisations.

“Yes, the agreement was always for temporary use,” Alice and Martha from The Parlour told Bristol Culture.

“But as you can see from the activity that the building now supports, this has gone way beyond being merely a temporary arts space. It is a credit to the collective efforts of a flourishing community.

“We just want to make sure Bristol City Council know exactly what they are losing if they opt for a commercial sale.”

City council spokeswoman Helen Hewitt said: “We appreciate that this is sad news for The Parlour Showrooms, but the story behind is that this is actually an example of how we’ve been successful in finding temporary uses for some of our empty shops for a time when we don’t have commercial tenants.

“Each time we do this, the shop is offered on a temporary basis only, so although this particular use has been a great success and is now coming to an end, we will continue to offer premises to a range of schemes elsewhere.

“It is important the council does find commercial tenants for our shops, as this raises valuable revenue which is then spent on frontline services to local people, often the most vulnerable in our communities.

“In addition, there would be a hidden cost of having less money for important services that people rely on if the council gave up seeking income from our empty shops entirely, not just on a temporary basis whilst the market was flat.”