Almost 100 flats could be created from converting one of the two landmark bonded warehouses at the Cumberland Basin, as part of a wider plan to build more than 3,000 new homes on publicly-owned sites across Bristol.
The latest list of development sites being worked on by Goram Homes, the housing development company set up and owned by Bristol City Council, has been published, containing new locations and new details about the massive housebuilding programme for the 2020s.
Goram’s business plan includes the latest updated development list, which confirmed for the first time earlier this week that there are plans to build 70 flats on The Grove car park next to Prince Street Bridge and Mud Dock, next to the Floating Harbour in the city centre.
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But the full list - scroll down for more details - contains more updates, including a reduction in the number of homes that are being planned for a controversial wildlife area in South Bristol, as well as homes on car park sites and council-owned spaces along the harbour.
The full list shows that the vast majority of the 3,112 new homes currently on Goram Homes’ development list are in the suburbs of the city, on parks and greenfield sites that haven’t been developed before. Of those 3,112, a total of 1,435 will be at Hengrove Park, as the development to build new homes on the site of the old Whitchurch Airport finally gets underway.
Other major locations include 268 currently being built as part of the ‘One Lockleaze’ project, to build new homes on green areas around the 1950s estate, and 187 new homes on the site of the former New Fosseway School in Hengrove. As well as the 70 flats on The Grove car park at Mud Dock, the ‘Western Harbour’ - the area around Cumberland Basin - is included for the first time, ahead of a ‘masterplan’ that the city council wants to draw up, with millions of pounds from the West of England Combined Authority.
Goram’s list states that the actual number of new homes at ‘Western Harbour’ is to be confirmed, but two other separate entries on the list is for the ‘A Bond’ and ‘B Bond’ warehouses at the western tip of Spike Island, between the Cumberland Basin and the New Cut River Avon. These buildings are both council-owned, and are expected to form the centrepoint of the Western Harbour development, which could see the ageing 1960s maze of road infrastructure stripped away and new flats built in their place.
The Goram list states the numbers of new flats that could be created by converting the ‘B Bond’ is to be confirmed, but Goram expects to convert the ‘A Bond’ warehouse into 96 flats, 38 of which will be classed as ‘affordable’.
Other entries on the list include one for 50 homes at Novers Hill, more commonly known as the Western Slopes between Knowle West and Bedminster. The council had originally earmarked the entire land there for more than 400 houses, but a successful campaign by local residents and environmentalists persuaded the Mayor of Bristol to U-turn and preserve the wildlife-rich fields and meadows there.
In making that announcement, the council said it would still build new homes on the brownfield sites along Novers Hill road itself, and said at the time that up to 70 new homes could be built there. This appears now to have been reduced further to 50.
The full list is as follows:
One Lockleaze
Work is already well underway on 268 new homes, of which 121 will be sold on the open market, and 147 classed as ‘affordable’. The developments in Lockleaze have been controversial, with residents accusing Goram Homes of 'ignoring and mocking' them. Read more on that, here.
Hengrove ‘Bookends’
At the first sites nearest the college and hospital at Hengrove Park, work has begun on the first phases of 150 new homes, although numbers are included in the total for the wider Hengrove Park development. Bristol Live reported on the day when work finally got underway on this site, back in October last year. Read the full story on that, here.
Hengrove Park
The former Whitchurch Airport has outline planning permission for 1,435 new homes overall, of which 717 - almost exactly half - will be classed as ‘affordable’. Read the full story on this, here.
Dovercourt Road
A separate site in Lockleaze that has outline planning permission for 140 new homes, of which 70 will be classed as ‘affordable’. It was awarded planning permission back in October - read the full details of that here. The development project at Dovercourt Road has been controversial, with local residents complaining Goram Homes has ridden roughshod over them. Read the full story on that here.
New Fosseway Road
Planners gave permission for 187 new homes on the site of the former New Fosseway School last month. Of those 187 homes, more than half - or 105 - will be classed as ‘affordable’. When it went before planners, there were fears expressed about the dire shortage of GPs in South Bristol, which is seeing thousands of new homes being built, but council planners gave permission anyway - read the full story on that here.
Castle Park
The biggest single inner-city development site, plans have been unveiled for 205 flats next to Castle Park View, on the site of the heat pump power station by the Floating Harbour. The tower block could rival Castle Park View in height. Goram say that 82, or 40 per cent, of the flats there will be classed as ‘affordable’.
When Goram Homes first unveiled the plans for what would be the tallest building in the city's history back in November, it was described as 'an assault on Bristol'. Read more on this here.
Portwall Lane Car Park
Plans have already been submitted, but not yet approved, to build 122 flats on top of the Portwall Lane car park, which is opposite St Mary Redcliffe Church. Of those 122 flats, 49 would be classed as ‘affordable’. Bristol Live last reported on the latest on this development last month - read more on that here.
Baltic Wharf
One of the most controversial building sites in Bristol, this has been for years the home of the Caravan Club, next to The Cottage pub in a prime harbourside location. Goram Homes and the city council want to build 166 flats here with an application that has sparked a lengthy and vociferous campaign against it - protesters have even ‘married’ the trees that dot around the former timber yard site.
The planning application is expected to come before city planners next month, but there are renewed fears around flooding on the site, which is located on the narrowest stretch of Spike Island. The Caravan Club itself could find itself homeless - its plan to move to the site of the former Avon and Somerset police horse training centre at the bottom of Rownham Hill on the far bank of the River Avon was scuppered by a Government minister, who intervened to stop the scheme going ahead, fearing lives could be lost if there is sudden flooding on a caravan park there.
SS Great Britain car park
Currently a space between the SS Great Britain and the Aardman headquarters on Spike Island, there have been several apartment blocks built by private developers around this area already. The Goram scheme would see a 153 new flats built over the current visitors car park, of which 61 would be classed as ‘affordable’.
Spring Street
This location in Bedminster is a large council-owned industrial estate, and it’s where the council allowed Jasper Thompson’s homeless shipping container project to move to from Malago Road. Goram Homes have plans to build 180 new homes there, of which just 54 would be classed as ‘affordable’. There might be a delay, however - the site is currently being transformed into an emergency site for the delayed new Oasis Temple Quarter secondary school that will eventually be built behind Temple Meads station.
The Spring Street area is the first piece in the jigsaw that could see 2,000 new homes built between Victoria Park and the River Avon in Bedminster in the next 15 years - read more on that here.
Novers Hill
The stableyard and former school site along Novers Hill have 50 new homes earmarked for them. That’s a massive reduction from the 450-plus the council originally wanted to build, before local residents and environmental groups like Avon Wildlife Trust persuaded the council to restrict the new homes at the Western Slopes back to the parts of the land off Novers Hill that have already been developed before.
A Bond
The first bonded tobacco warehouse built in 1905 at the western tip of Spike Island. It can’t be knocked down to make way for the Western Harbour regeneration project because it’s a listed building, so Goram Homes want to convert it into new homes and reckon they can fit 96 in there, of which 38 will be classed as ‘affordable’. The A Bond warehouse is the one upstream from the Ashton Swing Bridge.
B Bond
The second bonded tobacco warehouse was built in 1908 and positioned to the west of the Ashton Swing Bridge and is the further west of the three bonded warehouses. It currently is split in two, with the CREATE Centre in one half and the Bristol Archives in the other. Goram say it has not yet worked out the number of apartments that could be created by converting it to residential.
St Ursula’s
This Grade II listed building was part of the former school in Henleaze, but is now leased to a sports club. Goram say the site has the potential for conversion into apartments, and last year pledged to undertake surveys to see what could be created there. Now, Goram say the site could see 40 flats created there.
The Grove and Prince Street car parks
The land currently used as a council car park stretches from Prince Street Bridge to the space in front of the Thekla music venue boat, with the Mud Dock building in the middle. Earlier this week, Goram Homes revealed it was looking to build 70 flats there, of which 28 would be classed as ‘affordable’, mainly at the western end towards Prince Street Bridge, and away from the Thekla. Read the full story on this here.
Western Harbour
The large-scale regeneration project at Cumberland Basin - the area encompassed by the project stretches from the end of Coronation Road, Greville Smyth Park and Ashton Meadows at Ashton Gate on the south side of the river, across the Cumberland Basin to Hotwells on the north side of the Floating Harbour.
Goram Homes have not put a figure on the number of new homes there - that will depend on what the ‘masterplan’ suggests could be possible. Like the other ‘TBC’ site at the B Bond warehouse, it has not contributed a housing number to the 3,112 total.
This ‘masterplan’ will have to decide what to do with Brunel Way, the dual carriageway that currently runs from the Winterstoke interchange next to Ashton Gate Stadium, to the end of the Portway at Hotwells. It is currently the busiest non-motorway road in Bristol, and is busier than many stretches of the M4, M5 and M32 on a daily basis.
But the Plimsoll and Avon Bridges that carry Brunel Way over the River Avon and the Cumberland Basin are almost 60 years old now and engineers say are reaching the end of their lifespan. Much of the land that could be developed will be freed up by doing away with the maze of ramps and slip roads around the Cumberland Basin and potentially at Ashton Gate, but as the residents of Hotwells told the Mayor in early 2020, when options for new bridges and dual carriageways were first revealed, a plan for the road and any new homes had to go hand-in-hand.
Read next:
- Bristol council wants £5.6m to progress Western Harbour project
- Historic England to review Cumberland Basin sites and which to protect from development
- The future is uncertain for Brunel Way, Bristol's busiest road
- 'Plasticine planning' - what the first 'Western Harbour' workshops were really like
- Feisty residents of Hotwells tell Mayor to think again on Western Harbour project
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