Most people driving into Bristol down the M32 may not even realise, as they emerge from under the Easton junction and approach Cabot Circus that they are passing through one of Bristol’s oldest and most historic areas.
And most of the drivers passing the low-level industrial units and long-standing manufacturing yards of St Jude’s off to their left hand side may not have a clue that, before the end of this decade, the area they are passing will be completely transformed.
For the stretch south of the M32 as it becomes the regular road Newfoundland Way is expected to become one of the most densely-populated new inner city areas of Bristol, creating a completely new impression for those arriving by car or bus into the city.
For St Jude’s, read ‘Frome Gateway’. In place of repurposed warehouses and timber yards, there’ll be tower blocks, student flats, new bridges and thousands and thousands more people.
St Jude’s was one of historic medieval Bristol’s outer parishes – a community on the banks of the River Frome just a stone’s throw from the castle and city walls. The Victorians built their industry along the banks of the river, and in the spaces in between, terraced homes. Alongside the river stood the giant Earlsmead Tannery, one of two in St Jude’s, up river next door was a resin works and down river, an ‘Oil and Colour’ works. On either side of Houlton Street – the turn off into St Jude’s next to what’s now the landmark car park for Cabot Circus – there was a massive vinegar factory. On the north side of the river stood a felt hat factory.
The St Jude’s of 150 years ago would have be noisy, smelly, dirty and poor. This was one of Bristol’s roughest neighbourhoods, squeezed between the main road of Old Market and the river.
Then, in the post-war years, it was squeezed again between the narrowing end of the M32 and the inner city road networks that created dual carriageways and ring roads. Precious little of the old St Jude’s survived, replaced by more modern warehouses and factories, industrial units and yards. At the far south end nearest the city, a network of 1960s council blocks were built.
On the other side of Pennywell Road, a grid of Victorian two-up-two-down terraces, seven short streets between Goodhind Street and the bottom end of Stapleton Road survive. Post war council flats were built on the bombed out and cleared out slums of long lost streets like Plummer Street, Parsons Street and King Street.
But now, a new St Jude’s is being planned and requested. On either side of the river, developers have bought up the sites of the yards and the warehouses and want to create a new neighbouhood, between the two ends of St Jude’s where people currently live.
There are five plots that so far make up what has been dubbed the ‘Frome Gateway’. The phrase was first used back in the late 2010s, then increasingly in the early 2020s by the Labour Mayoral administration. The city council said yes to redeveloping and regenerating this entrance into Bristol, now comes the detail.
Five sites currently have planning applications or requests either pending or decided already. All have been issued just in the past 12 months. The council giving the go-ahead in principle to the Frome Gateway regeneration fired the starting gun and so quickly have developers leapt into action that the city council recently asked the Government for extra resources to help its planning department deal with the influx of what are major applications.
There will be more to come – there are more sites along the river awaiting their planning applications, and the narrower northern section between Pennywell Road and the river, further up towards Easton Way and the motorway junction could one day be developed too, but down between the Cabot Circus car park and the old Victorian terraces of St Jude’s there is enough to trouble the council planners already.
In total so far just in the last year, developers have applied for permission to build almost 2,000 new ‘homes’ in the area covered by the five sites just a few hundred yards across.
There will be two different blocks of purpose built student accommodation providing rooms for almost 800 students. Then the regeneration of St Jude’s will be at the heart of the ‘build-to-rent’ boom that Bristol will increasingly see in the late 2020s – four developments are planned so far, with a total of 1,151 flats rented out by an in-house management company.
All the details for all the applications aren’t revealed just yet, but the developers are generally working on having 20 per cent of those rented at ‘affordable’ rates, so that could be just over 200 flats rented to people on the housing waiting list.
Only at the most southerly spot – the old retail park next to Cabot Circus’ car park – is a specific affordable housing development planned – a block of 56 ‘affordable apartments’.
And the biggest impact for those driving down the M32 will be the heights of the buildings. Some of the buildings will be up to 20 storeys tall, and many will be between nine and 18 storeys. So let’s go on a tour of St Jude’s as it promises to be – in around the year 2035. We’re driving down the M32 and reach the first set of traffic lights with Cabot Circus car park ahead on the left. On our immediate left there was once the stationery store Staples, then Office Outlet. It closed and is currently the Trojan gym. This is our first site…
Houlton Street
The plan here is to build a purpose-built student accommodation block for 500 students, another block with 56 affordable apartments, and a ‘built to rent’ block of 200 flats.
An initial ‘scoping assessment’ was done, but a full planning application is yet to be submitted.
Alide Hire Services site
Down Houlton Street, we cross over the River Frome just before it passes under Cabot Circus’ car park, and pass the Salvation Army’s Logos House on the left hand side. Turn left up Little George Street and the next big site is Alide Hire Services on the left hand side.
Developers want to build blocks up to nine storeys and create a purpose-built student accommodation complex for up to 298 students. The plans were submitted in September last year, and councillors should be making a decision on this very soon.
Crown Sawmills
At the end of Little George St, the road takes a sharp right, but on that corner, just a few yards from Alide’s gates, is the entrance to the Scadding Sawmills – one of the last remaining pre-war industries left in St Jude’s. Here developers have submitted plans for 20 storey buildings to create 352 built-to-rent flats. On the ground level, there will be community spaces and cafes, and what they describe as ‘commercial and and business’ ‘maker spaces’. Council planners received this plan in the past three weeks and formal consultation is expected to start next month.
Globe House
Take that sharp right bend into Eugene Street and the landscape is now post-war industrial. Warehouses on both sides but a Victorian redbrick ‘Globe House’ on the left. Developers have already been granted planning permission to turn this site into 68 ‘build-to-rent’ flats, council planners gave the green light to this back in April last year.
Document
Behind Globe House is the biggest single building in St Judes by floor area. A former document archive storage facility, this post-war building was left empty and bought by developers more than ten years ago. They brought in the team that run Motion nightclub as a ‘meanwhile use’, while the council caught up with the idea of the ‘Frome Gateway’. Since then, the team have created Document, one of the city’s biggest media, arts and music venues.
But eventually all of that will go too. The plan is for the entire site to be demolished and three blocks of ‘build to rent’ flats to be created around a central garden – in total 431 flats in buildings up to 18 storeys high.
The developers have started the ball rolling with council planners with an initial screening request, but have been holding an open consultation website since before Christmas, showcasing their plans.
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