RETAILERS
Mud Dock is located on Bristol’s picturesque harbourside
ICONIC M
Founded in 1994, Mud Dock in Bristol stands out as one of the city’s most memorable destinations, for cyclists and non-cyclists alike. BikeBiz editor Alex Ballinger visited the restaurant-bike shop hybrid to meet owner Jerry Arron
ud Dock’s location is the first thing that strikes any visitor.
A standalone harbourside building, formerly
a vast industrial outpost, Mud Dock sits on Bristol’s picturesque harbourside in the city centre. I can’t actually remember a time before this unique
restaurant/bike shop existed, as the business opened in 1994, two years after I was born, but I have plenty of memories from past visits - Mud Dock was the first time I ever saw Cannondale’s Lefty fork design for example, or more recently watching Matt Stephens take an angle grinder to LiteLok’s newest lock, during a product launch held at the venue. I visited Mud Dock again on a mild November day, to meet the founder and owner Jerry Arron, to hear how this hybrid business has changed over the past three decades.
www.bikebiz.com
No regrets “It was quite a long time ago now,” said Arron on the founding of Mud Dock, speaking from his favourite window seat overlooking the water in the first-floor restaurant. “But I can look back at it with a bit of perspective. The good thing is I have absolutely no regrets.” Establishing Mud Dock involved huge risk, for Arron and his co-founder and wife Beverley. Both successful graphic designers living in London in the mid-90s, the couple decided to pack up their lives and move to Bristol, a city where they had no links, to escape the capital and try to find a living in a new industry. “It was all about the journey of moving away from London,
where we’d live for 12 years or maybe longer, living an urban life working in an industry that was quite buzzy. I had two young kids, it was very difficult to cycle recreationally in
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