Innovative plans to develop Bristol’s latest co-working space by using 90 converted shipping containers have been revealed.
The scheme, to be called CARGO Work, will be built within the walls of a former warehouse at Wapping Wharf, the Harbourside mixed-use development that has already become a hub for Bristol’s indie food and drink scene.
Directors of Wapping Wharf developer Umberslade used former shipping containers to create the distinctive CARGO retail, restaurant and leisure area after coming across a similar scheme in New York. The concept has also proved popular in London and other cities.
Since then they have been inundated with requests for flexible workspace that also uses shipping containers.
A smaller scheme beside Bristol’s Engine Shed innovative hub at Temple Meads, called Boxworks, became fully booked as soon as it opened just over two years ago. Its 20 ‘re-imagined’ containers are aimed at creative, digital and hi-tech firms and social enterprises.
Plans for CARGO Work show it will be made up of around 90 containers stacked up within the walls of the disused J S Fry warehouse on the corner of Wapping Road and Cumberland Road, opposite the Louisiana Pub.
Umberslade said the space, which will feature an atrium and decking on the roof, will be aimed at small and medium-sized businesses, including freelancers, clusters of people wanting to work collaboratively and entire office teams.
The existing warehouse walls, which are listed, will be restored, bringing the warehouse plot, which has been derelict for many years, back into commercial use.
Inside, contemporary workspace for up to 350 people will be developed using the containers. The scheme will also include some car parking, a café area with outside seating, a shower suite, drying room and lockers and secure cycle storage for more than 70 bikes.
Umberslade director Stuart Hatton said: “It’s fantastic to see that CARGO at Wapping Wharf has become so popular. Quite apart from the shipping containers, what makes the place unique is the extraordinary community of business people based there and how they support each other.
“We hope to replicate that sense of entrepreneurial spirit and mutual support in this new co-worker space, having had numerous requests for workspace at Wapping Wharf.
“What’s more, the Fry’s warehouse has stood empty for many years so it’s particularly exciting to think we can bring jobs and economic opportunity back to a place with such a strong industrial heritage.”
Plans for CARGO Work have been unveiled as the much-anticipated £43m second phase of Wapping Wharf, one of the city’s largest regeneration projects, is set to get underway next month, part-funded by a £23.4m investment from Homes England. It will add a further 250 homes to the 200 already built on the previously derelict site.
