The second of five major housing developments that will transform the middle of Bedminster is nearing completion, with hundreds of new homes ready for new residents in the spring, the developers have said.
And the leader of the city council has welcomed the new homes, hailing it as an ‘important milestone’ in the development of the Bedminster Green area.
Scaffolding is gradually being removed from the blocks of apartments and flats between Malago Road and East Street on the site of the former EPC factory. The complex of buildings, up to 16-storeys high contain a total of 295 build-to-rent apartments between Stafford Street and Little Paradise.
The new flats will not be available to buy, but will be privately-let with a management company renting them out and maintaining the building, which also includes a communal gym, lounge and co-workspaces, as well as courtyards, private balconies and roof terraces.
At the end of the development complex closest to East Street, the developer Dandara Living has also built another 21 homes that are classed as ‘affordable’ – on the site of one of the council-owned car parks in the area. Those affordable homes have been taken on by Bromford Housing Association – 16 will be available to rent through the council’s HomeChoice system, and the other five will be available for shared ownership.
The development will be called Stafford Yard, and the first people will be moving in in the spring. “We’re delighted that by Spring next year we will be able to open the doors for new residents to move into our Stafford Yard development,” said Rachel Allwood, Dandara’s planning director. “We have committed to building more than 1,000 homes in Bristol, including our Clarence Road scheme for 435 homes, which secured planning permission earlier this year. Stafford Yard is our first scheme to open its doors, and we look forward to welcoming our new residents.”
Although the development is in Bedminster, it falls in the Southville ward of Bristol City Council, and the two Green Party councillors are Cllr Christine Townsend and Cllr Tony Dyer, the leader of the council. Both have welcomed the near completion of the development.
“Bristol continues to battle with the housing crisis,” said Cllr Dyer. “The council is making real strides to address this profoundly important issue for our community, and it is great to see both Dandara Living and Bromford finally getting ready to open the doors to hundreds of new residents.
“Having a safe and warm place to call home is a basic human right. These lovely, energy-efficient and well-designed homes will provide secure tenancies for hundreds of people. Completing Stafford Yard is a really important milestone for the important Bedminster Green regeneration,” he added.
Stafford Yard is the second of five Bedminster Green ‘plots’ which were earmarked for major new development in the mid-2010s. The first to be completed was the Metal Works purpose-built student accommodation, on the site of what was an NCP car park on Dalby Avenue. That development, by PBSA-specialists Watkin Jones, opened for the first intake of 819 students in September this year.
In June this year, councillors gave Watkin Jones planning permission to build another PBSA complex on another of Bedminster Green’s five sites – the former Pring & St Hill metalworking site between Malago Road and the railway line. That will see accommodation built for 484 students, with work expected to start early next year.
A fourth site – known as Plot 5 – is currently the subject of a planning wrangle between the city council, and has been for more than three years. Dandara – who are nearly completing Stafford Yard – applied in September 2021 to build 330 new homes on the land around Bedminster Green itself.
In the face of hundreds of objections, Dandara changed their plans a year ago, in December 2023, reducing the number of ‘affordable’ homes and converting the entire development to a ‘build-to-rent’ one – like Stafford Yard – rather than a development which would see people able to buy a flat in the buildings.
This development is still to go before council planners, but is expected to do so in the first few months of 2025.
A fifth Bedminster Green ‘plot’ is the St Catherine’s Place shopping centre and the land around it. Despite getting planning permission to build 180 new flats and refurbish the shopping centre back in March 2021, owners Firmstone eventually said they couldn’t go ahead with the scheme. Instead, they closed the shopping centre down entirely, and have converted all the units inside into flats.
The plan for a stand-alone new block of flats on land between St Catherine’s House and the new Stafford Yard could eventually happen – a new developer, Galliard Homes, has taken on that site and are currently working with city planners on a new scheme to build homes there.
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