Ground work is about to start on the last remaining major regeneration scheme on Bristol’s Harbourside. The site preparation at Wapping Wharf also marks the beginning of the first city centre residential development this year – signalling a possible resurgence of the housing market.
The work, which will last for up to 10 weeks, will clear and level the site in preparation for its first two residential buildings and a new pedestrian walkway, Gaol Ferry Steps, which will link the site and the existing footbridge over the Cut with Museum Square, a new public space on the waterfront by the M Shed museum.
The long-delayed Wapping Wharf scheme was given a kick start late last year by a £12m investment from the Homes & Communities Agency (HCA) – the largest single award under the Government’s Get Britain Building initiative.
The first phase will include 194 apartments, including 26 affordable homes, with up to 865 sq m of retail and leisure space. Several key listed buildings and the old jail gates will be restored.
When complete, Wapping Wharf will have 625 homes, local shops, cafes, restaurants, offices and a 150-room boutique hotel.
Developer Umberslade, which owns most of the site, and Bristol-based architects Alec French are now finalising detailed designs ahead of tendering for contractors. Main building work will start this summer.
Wapping Wharf (Umberslade) director Stuart Hatton said collaboration with Bristol City Council’s planning and property departments over the past few months had speeded up the process.
“We have been given a green light and now its full steam ahead as we prepare for the summer to enable main works on the first phase to get underway,” he said.
Bristol & Region Archaeological Services (BaRaS) spent 10 weeks on the site during the winter, recovering evidence of industrial activity. The team discovered the remains of several buildings associated with shipbuilding from the 17th century through to the last quarter of the 19th century.
Historic map evidence, contemporary illustrations and other documentation points to the presence of a rope walk, timber yards and other associated buildings, some of which are thought to have been homes.
Evidence also suggests the site of a graving dock where ships were repaired, now beneath the east end of the M Shed, where Brunel’s first steam ship, the SS Great Western, was built and launched in 1837.
