The first plans for what will ultimately be a new residential area of South Bristol have been unveiled, and they include a tower block up to 21 storeys high. Most of the buildings proposed at Princess Street in Bedminster will be five or six storeys high, but a landmark tower block housing 400 students would be the tallest building in South Bristol’s history.
Developers laid out the plans at a drop-in meeting on Monday evening this week (December 9), and have now launched a consultation website showing what it wants to build on what is currently one corner of the large light industrial estate between Bedminster and Totterdown, in the space between the mainline railway and the New Cut River Avon.
This is the first of what will be a series of proposals to sweep away the industrial estates to the east of Whitehouse Lane in Bedminster, and replace them with a new neighbourhood of flats and student accommodation. On the ground floor level, the developers Galliard and Apsley House want to include at least 20 different units at the bottom of their buildings, which could house shops, bars, cafes, gyms, a health centre and community centres too.
Much of the discussion at Monday’s drop-in event at the nearby Windmill Hill City Farm was about what could go into those groundfloor spaces, with space to create a new GP surgery or primary health care centre in big demand from local residents.
The multi-practice Bridge View Medical group, that runs GPs’ surgeries across Southville, Ashton and Bedminster, says the number of patients per GP is higher than the national average in the area, and they are so short of space for their doctors that they are setting up surgeries in the city centre and sending patients from South Bristol there instead.
The previous Labour administration at Bristol City Councilfailed to include a specific space for new health care provision when they drew up the Whitehouse Lane ‘regeneration framework’, despite the council owning the majority of the land there. The framework will form the blueprint for the creation of the new residential area in the next decade, and the developers of the first plans said they could accommodate healthcare on the ground floor of their buildings, close to the railway line and Victoria Park.
The developers said it hopes to submit a planning application by the end of next month, and hope to have that decided at some point next year. Work could then start in early 2026, and the new homes and student accommodation could be ready for people to move into during 2028.
The plans are for a total of 450 new homes – all build-to-rent apartments of one-, two- or three-bedrooms, which are rented from the developers who maintain the buildings. Some 20 per cent of those 450 homes – around 90 flats – will be classed as ‘affordable housing’ in planning terms, and let at a reduced rent through the council’s HomeChoice system to people on the housing waiting list.
The plans show new green spaces and pedestrian streets through the centre of the development, which begins in the west side of the site, next to Whitehouse Lane, with a six-storey complex of buildings. That rises to a seven-storey, then a 13-storey building, with the purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA) building up to 21 storeys high at the east end of the site, directly in front of Victoria Park.
“Two of the key aims of the Whitehouse Street regeneration are providing opportunities for new jobs and creating better community spaces,” a spokesperson for the developers said. “Our proposal includes 15,000 square feet of ground floor spaces – divided into approximately 20 units – spread across the site exactly for these purposes. These spaces will help ensure the development has lots of activity, to create a vibrant place with a strong community.
“We’re working with the community and local businesses to understand where such uses are best located in the scheme. We’ve located potential floorspace for such uses along the main routes of Princess Street and Whitehouse Street where there may be more footfall,” he added.
“We are particularly keen to hear suggestions on what uses are most needed and wanted to help create a vibrant development that delivers real benefits for the existing community,” they added.
“We are proposing to build approximately 450 new homes, as well as 400 student bedrooms in a separate, purpose-built, well-managed building. 20 per cent of the 450 homes will be affordable. The market homes will be apartments which will all be owned and managed by one single professional operator,” they added.
“We have been working with officers at Bristol City Council to agree the approach to our scheme, including the types of homes, employment spaces, public realm, pedestrian and cycle routes and building design. This collaborative approach seeks to fully align with the Whitehouse Street Regeneration Framework principles,” he said.
The developer has said it is particularly keen to hear from local people about what kind of use the ground floor units in all their buildings could be turned to – with shops and cafes, potentially a community centre, and the healthcare provision high on many people’s priorities.
The 21-storey PBSA student block would – if it gets planning permission – easily be the tallest building ever built in South Bristol. That’s currently the 18-storey council tower block Northfield House in Catherine Mead Street in Bedminster, with other tall buildings currently being built as part of the Bedminster Green redevelopment a stone’s throw further down Whitehouse Lane. The Stafford Yard development at Little Paradise on Malago Road is nearing completion and is 16 storeys high, while the Boatyard building on Bath Road in Totterdown is 17 storeys from the level of the river bank and 15 storeys high from the road level.
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