Empty warehouses are dotted around Bristol and across the country, and demolition is usually the path that is chosen to make the space useable once again.
However, the team behind Towed Town Camping, a quirky camping-inspired hotel in St Philips, decided that there is a better way to do it. They have completely transformed a disused building that was formerly home to MJJ Autos Ltd in Southville into a stunning 16-bed hostel called CoalShed.
It is set to open next month and one of the owners, Emma Reynolds, spoke to Bristol Live about the project's aims and their plans to bring a modern and unique offering to people visiting our city and region.
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She said: "What we like to do is take underappreciated buildings or old warehouses and infuse a little bit more love and soul back in them so that people have an alternative to a standard hotel."
Speaking about the process from acquiring the building on Booth Road, just off North Street, to preparing to welcome their first guests, Emma added: "We've had the site for a little while. We went through the phases of kind of trying to get planning permission to sort of convert. It is quite unusual because there's not really many other places that have converted warehouses. So it's quite an unusual one for the planning, I suppose, so it took a little while.
"We got planning [permission] at the start of the pandemic, so we kind of held off because we just didn't know where things were going. And then we started work in August time."
The work on the ground floor is now complete, with five bedrooms each with individual bathrooms, a large communal area (or 'hangout space') complete with a pool table, ping-pong table, vending machine, and comfortable seating where guests can enjoy time together, as well as a shared kitchen where guests can prepare meals, with a big dining table and a breakfast bar.
They had initially planned to build similar bedrooms in the upstairs of the property, but changed their plans and are building two apartments now.
Emma said: "Just from feedback from people that were inquiring, and other guests, I think it might work better to have [something] slightly different rather than 10 similar things. So that work's starting at the moment."
Emma and Fred Wyatt launched Towed Town Camping three years ago in a disused warehouse in Kingsland Road, St Philips, after the couple had noted there was a distinct lack of reasonably priced accommodation in the city centre whenever their friends had come to visit.
They picked up five unloved caravans and kitted each of them out with a comfy double bed, a TV, WiFi and an en-suite with a private shower to create a unique camping experience.
Emma describes Towed Town Camping as more "rugged", but says it has attracted guests of all ages, with someone even celebrating their 60th birthday there. They wanted CoalShed to be more family-friendly, as well as a great option for groups.
Four of the five downstairs bedrooms have a king-size bed with a single sofa bed and a private bathroom as well, and the fifth bedroom is wheelchair-friendly with an accessible shower room and a separate room with a bunk bed. Altogether, they can sleep up to 16 people.
The rooms are built out of low-cost timber partitions and are decorated in a quirky, informal style, and accomplish their mission of retaining buildings rather than demolishing them, which helps to reduce the carbon footprint and retains local character.
Describing what is on offer, Emma said: "All the rooms have a tea-coffee station with complimentary cereal, a little mini-fridge, just like what you see in a normal hotel room, we have things like diffusers in there so people can put some essential oils in, and all the rooms have televisions that are connected to the internet."
Included as part of the booking price is a supply of breakfast cereals, as well as tea and coffee provided in each room, with milk, granola, and other breakfast items. Guests will also be given a token each for the vending machine on-site to purchase drinks and refreshments, while the pool table, ping-pong table, and WiFi are also included.
Emma said that weekdays will be priced at around £80 per night per room, and that will rise to just under £100 for Friday and Saturday nights. There are also group rates available, so for a group of 16, prices would start at around £800 in total, working out at approximately £50 per person, per night.
And despite it not being open yet, Emma and Fred have already had plenty of enquiries: "We've got our first group arriving on February 11. We have already had a couple of people who have booked with us in May, like stag and hen dos, and then they want the apartments too because their dads or mums and people like that are coming along."
CoalShed is set to welcome its first guests next month and will open fully upon completion of the upstairs of the building in March, with bookings available on Booking.com and Airbnb at that point.
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