New restaurants have opened, and more are soon to come, as the impact of opening Bristol’s biggest single student accommodation complex in one of the city’s more rundown retail areas is beginning to be seen.
It’s only been a fortnight since more than 800 students from the University of Bristol moved into the new Metal Works purpose built student accommodation on Dalby Avenue in Bedminster – right across the road from what was dubbed ‘Britain’s saddest shopping centre’ by The Sun 18 months ago.
Along with the 819 student beds at Dalby Avenue, another 50 students are making themselves at home further down the A38 in West Street, and work on a development of more than 300 new ‘build-to-rent’ homes in tower blocks at Little Paradise, close to East Street is nearing completion, with hope that the first residents will be moving in next year.
East Street is the road that’s effectively South Bristol’s High Street, with its place in the hearts of generations who moved out of BS3 to the outer suburbs but still regularly return. And while the area has been surrounded by cranes and roadworks, the traders and retailers there often spoke of their hope that the influx of thousands of new neighbours on the old and redundant brownfield factory sites nearby would bring their ailing street back to life.
There’s optimism this is starting to happen. Last month, a new Indian restaurant opened in the Bedminster Parade part of East Street, occupying a former bank that had been converted into a stunning but sadly short-lived jazz club back in 2022.
Bombil has been opened by the team behind other Indian restaurants in the city, including Nutmeg, Nadu, Kal Dosa and Nutmeg Street Kitchen, and opened in the middle of September.
And last month, Benji Tebit brought something to East Street that Bedminster has never really seen before – an African restaurant.
He said he was optimistic about East Street’s future, and the arrival of the students was a huge factor in his decision to go for Bedminster and take on what had been one of East Street’s many empty and shuttered-up shops.
The 38-year-old learned his culinary skills early – his mum ran a restaurant in his native Cameroon – and after settling in Bristol 11 years ago, he worked at the African Palace, an African restaurant in the city.
He chose Bedminster for his dream to open his own place. “Initially I was looking for a place maybe in Easton or out that way, because that’s where most of the African community in Bristol are, but there are already a lot of African restaurants there, and in the long run I thought here in Bedminster would be better,” he told Bristol Live.
“Bedminster is not far from Easton and close to the city centre, and I saw all the building in the area and the students were coming, and I thought East Street would be perfect.
“It’s only been a couple of weeks that they have been here, but already it’s been good, there have been a lot of students coming here for food. They look at what’s nearby on their phones and order it, and come and pick it up – it’s been great,” he added. “I believe East Street be good, it’s on the up.”
This summer saw another bit of positive news for East Street – the reopening both ways of the main A38 Malago Road after two and a half years of roadworks and lane closures. In the early days of 2022, when the work began, local traders complained strongly that the impact was affecting their businesses. Now, with the first signs of the benefits from the developments that have caused such disruption for so long, there’s more optimism.
At the other end of East Street from the new student complex, there’s even hope for the empty bank building. Just a couple of weeks ago, planners gave permission for it to be turned into a new, six-storey residential development, with a health hub on the ground floor providing space for an expanded local dentist practice.
The development will also take in the empty bookies’ next door, and the Bedminster Pharmacy – which is set to move to a premises just round the corner in East Street itself, in a building currently being restored.
And work is also nearing completion on 50 housing association flats, together with new shops on the ground floor, on the site that was home to the big Argos, that was once one of East Street’s ‘anchor’ stores.
Many feared the closure of Argos, along with Wilko’s and Iceland and all the other stores in St Catherine’s Place shopping centre, heralded the end of an era for East Street as a traditional mainstream shopping hub, but the opening of B&M’s supermarket chain Heron Foods and the continued success of East Street Fruit Market mean there are still many reasons to head there.