Developers who want to demolish a garage and shed next to one of Bedminster’s oldest houses and build an eight-storey coal-black futuristic office building there instead have returned with a fresh attempt to get planning permission.
A second planning application has been submitted by DJP Property Holdings, based at Ham Green, near Pill, for a narrow plot of land that forms part of Rock Cottage, a large, listed early Victorian house at the Parson Street end of West Street in Bedminster.
Late last year, DJP surprised local residents in Bedminster by submitting three different applications for the site they bought early in 2022, which had a total of five different proposals for three different futuristic tall buildings on the site.
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Bristol Live revealed all three proposals in December, and reported that people living around the area had objected en masse to what some described as an ‘incredibly ugly’ plan.
The developers' three different planning applications sought to demolish the sheds and garage on the south side of Rock Cottage, convert Rock Cottage itself from offices back to residential and build an extension to create 11 new homes, and a third application which included the five different options for futuristic buildings to replace the garage.
While the first two planning applications are still yet to be decided, it appears that the third one for the new building was withdrawn in the New Year, and now a fresh planning application has been submitted. While it still contains the original design proposals for the different options for a black-windowed office block, a mirror-fronted office block or a glass and metal office block, it appears the fresh application is only for the black building, which the developers have called the ‘Coal Building’.
“Our proposal is to demolish the existing dwellings on the site to allow us to erect a new dwelling in their place,” the developers’ application to City Hall said. “As well as re-landscaping our site to enhance Rock Cottage, the proposed dwelling will be a mixed use, art studio, flats and offices. The building will be eight stories (sic) high from street level.”
In their original design statement, the developers said of the ‘Coal Building’: “This scheme consists of dark cladding and dark glazing which encompasses the soul of Bedminster as its history with coal mining in the 19th century. This scheme would be eight floors high with an eye-catching design, replicating the appearance of a rock of coal. To enhance Rock Cottage’s position in the area.”
All the neighbours’ and residents’ objections to the original planning application no longer stand, but neighbours have been objecting to the proposal since the scheme was announced by council planners earlier this month.
Local councillor Tess Fitzjohn (Green, Bedminster) is among those who have objected to the plan to demolish the garages and build flats on stilts over a private road. One neighbour living nearby told planners: “I feel like while it makes sense for this space to get used the proposal is far too tall. You can't just start sticking massive tall tower blocks in skinny spaces in between normal size houses, it will block out lots of sunlight for local residents including mine,” they added.
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