The corner of Gloucester Road and Berkeley Road, Bishopston. The door first opened as Sharples & Co in 1973, became Capstone Solicitors in 2013, and is still answering Bishopston conveyancing, commercial property and probate files today. Two partners, one practice, the same address for fifty-three years.
Bishopston Victorian terraces, upper-flat-of-a-conversion leasehold reviews, new build title work, shared ownership lender packs, joint purchases with a Declaration of Trust at £250 plus VAT for straightforward arrangements. Fees linked to the transaction value rather than a flat fixed-fee. The same solicitor on the file from sale memorandum to completion call.
Sale and purchase of freehold and leasehold business premises and development land. New lease grants, lease variations, lease renewals, licences to assign, alteration approvals. Development agreements and developer-scheme work. Clients range from owner-occupier businesses on Gloucester Road to investors holding multiple tenanted units across the south west.
Wills (fixed fee for straightforward cases). Administration of deceased estates, on a grant-only basis or as a full administration of the estate. Trusts created by will or in lifetime. Deeds of variation. Estate taxation advice. Post-death property sales handled in-house. Plain English throughout, particularly when the file lands during the worry and the paperwork of a bereavement.
A small Bishopston practice on a high street that, even then, traded on independents. The Victorian and Edwardian terraces around the corner shop were already half-converted into upper and lower flats. The work that came through the door was the work of the neighbourhood: a terrace sale, a probate file, a commercial lease for the bakery up the road, a will read at the kitchen table.
1 February 2013. A new partnership forms above the same shopfront, re-files the SRA paperwork, and the door now reads Capstone Solicitors. The Sharples & Co files transfer in. Same address, same posture, new name on the letterhead.
9 May 2025. Capstone Solicitors Limited (company 16441266) is incorporated to carry the partnership forward into a limited structure. Robert J. Wilson, Partner and Head of Department, becomes a director on record. Claire L. Speake continues as Partner. The corner shop has not moved.
Today the firm is two partners, one associate, and an enquiries inbox that has answered Bishopston files for fifty-three uninterrupted years. The same green shopfront. The same gold serif lettering. The same Bath-stone walls. The same insistence on having the same solicitor on the file from sale memorandum to completion.
Gloucester Road is the longest stretch of independent shops in the country, and the spine of north Bristol's Victorian and Edwardian housing stock. Bishopston, Horfield, St Andrews and Ashley Down are streets of three-storey bay-fronted terraces, two-thirds of them converted in the last forty years into upper and lower flats with share-of-freehold arrangements.
The conveyancing file that lands on the bench is rarely the simple one. The lease references a long-defunct freeholder management company. The Land Registry plan shows a vault room under the front pavement that no-one has mentioned in twenty years. The neighbouring flat is held by a different family and the share-of- freehold company has not filed at Companies House since 2019. The buyer's lender wants reassurance on the party-wall provisions and the unmodernised gas certificate.
Fifteen years of Robert J. Wilson's post-qualification practice has been spent on these files. Twenty-eight years of Claire L. Speake's, on the commercial side. What looks like a generalist high-street solicitor is, in practice, a small firm that has done this exact transaction on this exact street more times than most of the chains in the city centre.
Two partners, one associate. Whoever answers the first call sees the matter through to completion. No internal handoffs and no junior-paralegal-only files.
The Law Society's Conveyancing Quality Scheme covers anti-fraud due diligence, lender-panel acceptance, complaints handling and file management to a published standard. Annual reaccreditation.
Conveyancing fee linked to the transaction value, not a teaser-rate fixed price that climbs once the file opens. Hourly overage at £150 plus VAT, named up-front. Declaration of Trust at £250 plus VAT.
Qualified as a solicitor in December 2006. Trained at a regional commercial firm, then post-qualification work in property and planning. Two years practising property law in New Zealand before returning to the UK. Joined Capstone in March 2010. Day-to-day work: residential conveyancing, freehold and leasehold property files, the Bishopston terrace caseload.
Qualified as a solicitor in 1988. Trained at and worked for large regional commercial firms as a commercial-property solicitor before joining the firm in 1998. Twenty-eight years on Gloucester Road. Day-to-day work: commercial sale and purchase, commercial lease work, developer-client schemes, and a share of the residential conveyancing.
Associate Solicitor. Day-to-day work across the conveyancing and probate files, with the same continuity-of-solicitor approach as the partners. The file you open with Catherine is the file you complete with Catherine.
We draft straightforward wills on a fixed-fee basis. We are clear up-front when a will is not straightforward (multiple marriages, a business in the estate, a taxable estate, a trust requirement). The hourly rate applies only when fixed fee is not appropriate, and we say so before the meter starts.
Two tiers. Grant Only Service, where we handle the court paperwork and you handle the rest. Full Administration of the Estate, where we handle the lot, from death certificate to final account. We tell you which tier suits the estate before the engagement letter is signed.
Trusts created by will or in lifetime. Deeds of variation. Estate taxation advice and HMRC liaison. Post-death property sales handled in-house, with the same conveyancer who knows the Bishopston market.
A short form. We aim to come back the same working day with a named solicitor on the file and an indicative fee. For a sale or purchase, please include the postcode and (if known) the agreed price. For probate, an estimate of the estate value and whether you have located a will.
If you would rather pick up the phone, please call 0117 942 8214. Reception will route the call to the right solicitor. We do not use overseas call centres.
62 Gloucester Road
Bishopston
Bristol BS7 8BH
Phone · 0117 942 8214
Email · enquiries@capstonelaw.co.uk
By bus · Gloucester Road services from the city centre (1, 70, 72, 73, 75, 76), Bishopston stop two doors down
By car · on-street parking along Gloucester Road, residents-permit zone weekdays
The same shopfront for fifty-three years. Green-painted Victorian corner shop, gold serif signage above the door, Cats Protection charity shop to the right.
Most of the work we do is by phone, email and post. We hold appointments at the office for signing meetings, will conferences, and Bishopston clients who would rather come in. Please call ahead so the right solicitor is at the desk.
Our fees are linked to the value of the property rather than a flat fixed-fee. The reasoning is named on the conveyancing engagement letter: the level of risk and responsibility increases in line with the value of the transaction. Hourly overage rate, where it applies, is £150 plus VAT. For joint purchasers, a Declaration of Trust for standard arrangements is £250 plus VAT. We give you the indicative figure before the file opens.
Yes. The bread-and-butter file. Lease review, service charge review, share-of- freehold management company checks, the buyer's lender pack, the unmodernised certificates that always need chasing. Most of the work the firm has done in the last fifteen years has been on this exact transaction type within a mile of the office.
Yes, in the way that matters. The door opened as Sharples & Co in 1973. On 1 February 2013 a new partnership formed, the SRA paperwork was re-filed, and the door now reads Capstone Solicitors. The address has not moved. Sharples & Co files have transferred forward. If you have an old Sharples letter in a drawer from before 2013, we will recognise the file.
The phrase is on the homepage and we keep it there because it is true: the firm was set up and is run by partners whose practice posture is shaped by it. In practice that means honesty about fees, no upselling, no aggressive negotiating tactics on a probate file, and the same solicitor on the matter from start to finish. We do not ask clients about their faith and we serve a fully secular Bristol clientele.
Yes. Two partners, one associate. The person you exchange the first email with is the person who signs your completion statement. No internal handoffs from solicitor to paralegal to administrator, which is how high-volume conveyancing factories work. One file, one solicitor, one inbox.