Bristol specialist regeneration firm Helm Construction has started work on an ambitious scheme on a landmark Victorian building in Bedminster.
Derelict St Luke’s Hall in William Street, which was originally built as a ‘ragged school’ to feed and support the poor, is the latest inner city regeneration project undertaken by the fast-expanding building company.
The imposing brick and tile building includes basement, ground and two upper floors and will be converted into two one-bedroom, 11 two-bedroom and one three-bedroom homes. 
Helm Construction managing director Paul Evans said: “St Luke’s hall has been a Bedminster landmark since the Victorian times but after a series of commercial uses it has been left vacant and is now in need of a complete refurbishment in order to provide much-needed new homes in South Bristol.
“It is part of a new wave of renovation works we’re involved in which will help restore South Bristol to its former glory and bring these long-abandoned buildings back into the public realm.
“Like many abandoned or brownfield sites, St Lukes presented some immediate challenges. One of the first obstacles we faced was how to work around the Victorian culvert which runs diagonally beneath the basement.
“We have had to make sure none of the pilings damaged the structure, which has remained untouched for more than 100 years.” 
Once known as St Luke’s Mission Hall Ragged School, the first reference to the hall is in a planning application submitted to the city council in 1876 for a ‘Soup Kitchen, Ragged and others School’.
Helm Construction has recently completed a similar regeneration projects at Morley Road in Southville and Bushy Park, Totterdown.
Paul Evans added: “Activating abandoned industrial and other brownfield sites has an immediate impact helping to tackle Bristol’s increasingly chronic housing shortage. This is especially true in Bristol which has plenty of shovel ready sites like these.”
