Bristol Harbourside
One of the most distinctive features of Bristol city centre is the floating harbour, which winds its way through the area to the north of the river Avon. Following the decline of the docks, during the 1960s, the city council had planned to fill in parts and build new roads over it. This important feature of the city’s heritage was saved when these plans were shelved for financial reasons in the recession of the early 1970s
Key facts
Size: 26 hectares
Timescale: 1st phase 1998-2000
2nd phase 2006
3rd phase 2007-2010
Contacts
Bristol Harbourside Sponsors Group
Ian Muir: tel: 0117 929 2311
Bristol City Council
Richard Holden: tel: 0117 922 2950
The passenger ferry arrives at the dockside at Bordeaux. Quay in the heart of the city centre
Views of people using Millennium Square.
The square is very open, and some feel the hard landscaping is rather severe.
The water features are popular with children, although this has health and safety implications as this was not an intended use.
The inclusion of raised seating areas in the square restricts crowd capacity for events held in Millennium Square. The so-called ‘flocking’ effect.
Industrial features at Canon’s Marsh have been retained wherever possible, such as this weighbridge, with the carefully restored 19th century leadworks in the background, which made lead sheeting for plumbing.
The original has been as little altered as possible, making this an attractive feature.
Designer: Chris Wilkinson Ayre
Looking towards Millennium Square. The approach is somewhat dark and the shops at groundlevel are using A-boards and other forms of advertisement on the pavements to attract customers.
Street furniture continues the theme
An early example of reinforced concrete construction in Britain, by
Hennebique in 1904. Trains used to serve this depot.
New flats on the dockside
The area is currently undergoing a transformation, with Harbourside at its core. Once an area of traditional port related industries, characterised by wharfs, cranes and boatyards, it is now an area of fashionable nightclubs, restaurants and museums. New flats snake along the waterfront, while visitors throng to enjoy boat rides, outdoor cafes, shops and galleries.
Opening up the waterfront has formed a key plank of current council policy. These included the creation of a waterside walkway stretching several miles. Any development along the water had to provide public access.
Another key guiding principle is that as much of the historic fabric of the harbour should be retained as possible, avoiding 1960s style clearances. This policy has enabled as much of the traditional boating activity of the harbour to remain as possible, including boat builders and restorers. Ships have been turned into floating restaurants, while a water ferry links the new developments on Canon’s Marsh to the centre and railway station further upstream.
Historical patterns of development have been retained, and a vareity of dockside structures preserved, while at the same time as over 1,000 new homes have been built. The open aspect of the Floating Harbour and the surrounding area has meant retaining and enhancing views into and out of the area particularly important.
History
Regeneration first began in an ad hoc way in the early 1980s, to an early set of principles laid down by the Council. These largely consisted of scattered low density housing developments further out from the city centre. Large areas of harbourside nearer the centre remained derelict as they were more difficult to develop, including a former gas works, tobacco warehouses, a coal depot and railway goods yard. Much of this land was contaminated. The land was also in multi-ownership – with one major stakeholder Imperial Tobacco disinterested in developing their area.
A way out of the impasse was signalled by the decision by Lloyds Bank to build their HQ on the waterside in the mid 1980s. Although unpopular with the public, the council’s decision to give consent to Lloyds indicated to developers that harbourside ‘was open for business’. Unusually for large docklands such as this, the city council retained overall control, and no development corporation was formed (except for one small area of the city, Philips Marsh, taken over by English Partnerships in 1996).
The city council made it a policy that the harbourside should lead in the regeneration of the centre, by becoming a new focus for heritage, arts and tourism, and that it should include either a concert hall or swimming pool. The council was able to secure a special agreement with the other landowners that the proceeds of new development should support public attractions. The so-called harbourside ‘sponsors’ signed an accord, which although lacking legal status, was morally binding. The council believes that this ‘spirit of cooperation’ has been a key factor in the area’s regeneration.
Development
The city council set up a project team to steer harbourside regeneration project in 1993. It established major routes: one key requirement was for the developer to open up views of the cathedral and harbour seen from specified corridor routes. These include the Brunel Mile, which runs for a mile from Temple Meads railway station to the SS Great Britain in the harbour.
Previous low density development was replaced by higher densities of over 150 units per hectare. 25% of the total area was set aside as public realm, which is regarded by some as one of the project’s greatest successes. All of the area is easily accessible by visitors, with large open squares, and wide corridors leading down to the walkway along the harbour.
Boosted by an £83 million bid to the Millennium Commission, the @Bristol and Imax cinema attractions were built for the year 2000. A sequence of public spaces were designed and built, paid for by the developer. This included Millennium Square, with its user-friendly and imaginatively designed underground car park. Front funding from English Partnerships enabled the public works to start ahead of the commercial developments. (However, the promised concert hall never materialised when the Arts Council pulled out.)
Local opposition
Local opposition to developers Crest Nicholson's proposals for Canon's Marsh resulted in a rival scheme by local architects Ferguson Mann in 1999, and the original scheme being turned down by the Council. A revised proposal and a new round of consultation followed, with new designers appointedd.
Edward Cullinan Architect’ s masterplan for 16.3 acres is organised around new and improved public spaces, and three main routes.
The masterplan, based on new and improved public spaces, includes over 1.5 hectares of accessible landscape, the completion of Millennium Square and the Brunel Mile, a Millennium Promenade focusing on the SS Great Britain, and a new walk framing a view of the Cathedral. The scheme was approved in August 2001. The whole scheme is expected to take until 2010.
The £240 million regeneration of Canon's Marsh is now well underway, with the construction of the second phase of Crest Nicholson's residential, office and leisure development completed in 2006. Twin apartment buildings frame the view of the Cathedral from Wapping Wharf.
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Arts and heritage play key roles in the Harbourside redevelopment
The SS Great Britain, the first ever propeller-driven, iron-hulled, ocean going ship, was built in Bristol and launched in 1843. She is now undergoing restoration in the very same dry dock in which she was built.
Also on the south side of the harbour, the Industrial Museum (located in old dockside warehouses) is being remodelled as a new Museum of Bristol. This £18 million project, backed by the Heritage Lottery Funded, will be completed in 2009. It will explore the history of the docks in Bristol, highlighting both its maritime past, and rise of new 20th century industries. The attraction will also explore the possibilities for the city's future - and engage visitors in helping to shape the city's vision for the next few decades and beyond.
The design for the new museum building has been developed by architects LAB Architecture Studios. It preserves the heritage façade of the existing building and ensures that the working cranes and docks railway continue to be a key feature of the harbourside landscape
A £1 million public arts programme at Harbourside includes a Lightwall that brings movement and colour to Millennium Square. Other works include a sculptural bench by Turner Prize nominees Langlands and Bell, a weathervane by Janice Kerbel, a light work by Bristol artist Richard Box, a collaboration between Dail Behennah and Childs+Sulzmann Architects and an intervention within the car park lobby and stairwell by John Pym. The Lightwall was created by lighting architects Speirs and Major Associates.
Future plans
Edwand Cullinan Architects announced that a further piece of the jigsaw is set to be put in place, following Bristol City Council Planning Committee's resolution on 4th April 2007 to approve the third phase of the Masterplan for Bristol Harbourside.
This includes an apartment building of affordable housing accompanied by a proposal by artists San façon for an 'Urban Parterre' of ruderal plants to unify the space at the edge of the site.
The project is planned to start summer 2007.
