The future of the Cumberland Basin

Before Marvin Rees’ most recent annual state of the city address, a slickly produced video was played on a big screen above the mayor’s head at the Wills Memorial Building.

The camera flies along the Avon Gorge, above the Clifton Suspension Bridge to the Cumberland Basin where as if by magic new buildings spring up on all sides of the water.

Anyone who has listened to Rees in recent months might have picked up on his regular referring to the Western Harbour, the new name for the Cumberland Basin.

The video shows just how seriously he and his administration are taking the challenge to redevelop this corner of Bristol, which for many has been blighted since a complicated system of roads and bridges was built in the 1960s.

If the Bristol Investment Brochure which Rees has been taking around the world was an Argos catalogue, the Western Harbour would be the page you would put a ring around.

With 75 per cent of the land already owned by the city council, it has developable land of up to 20 hectares with the potential to build up to 1,200 homes, of which 30 per cent will be affordable, plus commercial and leisure space. The residential elements alone having a gross development value estimated at more than £1 billion.

“It’s fundamentally unique,” Colin Molton, Bristol City Council’s interim executive director of growth and regeneration told Bristol24/7.

Molton and a small team concentrated in the mayor’s office at City Hall have been working behind the scenes on this major infrastructure project for some time now but have revealed few public details so far much to the concern of some local residents.

Expect a major consultation to be launched in 2019, however, with plans to change the area beyond all recognition.

Early computer generated images of what Western Harbour could one day look like

One of their main jobs so far for Molton and his team has been traffic modelling, with talk even turning to a possible tunnel, not just for cars but also potentially as part of Rees’ mooted underground system, which seems highly unlikely in this location.

“Unless you solve the traffic issues, you don’t have a project,” said Kevin Slocombe, head of the mayor’s office who has also been working closely on the Western Harbour project. “And you would not develop that site with the existing infrastructure.”

“The transport options have to come first,” Slocombe added. “You cannot even imagine the scale of the development unless you get rid of those roads. That opens up the scale.”

The site really is big, stretching from beyond the footbridge going over the road system from the steep slope of Granby Hill, encompassing Cumberland piazza along the line of Cabot Way towards the Rose of Denmark pub, the small strip of land between the Pump House and the Nova Scotia, and most of the spit of land on which sits the A bond and B bond warehouses, in which popular businesses such as Lockside occupy units underneath the roads.

Lockside occupies a former transport cafe that featured in Only Fools and Horses

Molton describes how this substantial mixed-use development scheme containing offices, retail, leisure, cultural buildings and homes will help to create “a new quarter for the city, an extension of the city centre”, alongside the growing Temple Quarter in the east and the Western Harbour in the west.

A and B bond warehouses will likely be an early phase of the development at Western Harbour. “They are massively attractive buildings,” Molton said.

“A lot of people like that character and like living in that kind of space. They are going to be important buildings to get right. They are in council ownership so we can crack on with them in an early phase.”

One of the warehouses (A is currently used for storage by the council and B is the Create Centre) is likely to be predominantly residential, “because that is going to create the value,” said Molton.

Although not within the main area of the Western Harbour, the Baltic Wharf caravan park is also part of this plan, with Bristol Housing Company likely to build one of their first developments on the site.

Slocombe said: “It’s an amazing piece of land. For it to be unused for this long is incredible. It’s prime real estate in a city with a massive housing shortage.”

Bristol Housing Company, given the green light by cabinet in September, will aim not just to build houses but also allow the city council to have greater control over how sites for new homes are developed. Wholly owned by the council, it will offer another route to increase the number of homes built and aim to meet Rees’ target of building 2,000 homes per year by 2020.

But the Western Harbour itself looks likely to be financed privately, with that Argos catalogue of a Bristol Investment Brochure giving investment opportunities that, in Rees’ words, “develop firm and long lasting investment partnerships with you that deliver for the people of Bristol”.

Four anchors around the Cumberland Basin are aligned with the points of a compass

“Investors want to come to Bristol,” Slocombe told Bristol24/7. “We are the administration of delivery.”

Molton added: “Here in Bristol we have got all of the connections aligned to allow us to do this. This is an administration willing to make changes. We take bold decisions. The market is buoyant. People want to come here, set up business here. It’s a good opportunity to do these things now…

“There’s a lot of money around for infrastructure delivery. We need to make sure we capture some of that national funding for Bristol. But it’s not easy to spend infrastructure money quickly.

“A scheme of this size is a long-term project. It will not happen overnight. But unless we start planning this now it would never happen. It’s not a quick-win but our ambition is to get on with it in as short a timeframe as possible.

“It’s a fantastic site and a fantastic location. It’s got all the ingredients for a fantastic development site. It’s got water, views, heritage and proximity to the city centre.”

Amy Hutchings has worked with the Hotwells & Cliftonwood Community Association to brighten up the Cumberland Basin as part of the Art Under the Flyover project

This is what the area around the Cumberland Basin means to local artist Amy Hutchings:

“I love Hotwells. It’s very community orientated and well situated for travel around the city. The area around the harbour is wonderful. Living close to the city centre and still having access to big skies and recreational space is very special.

“The area under the Cumberland Basin provides a communal space for the community to use in multifunctional ways. I feel privileged to have been able to play a small part in making the space feel more friendly, useable and accessible to the community.

“My children and I often play on the way to and from school and idle away hours – especially in the summer – when the ships sail in. Being involved in the mural with Hotwells Primary School – where the children drew their favourite things about where they live – and translating it onto the wall – was fantastic!

“They loved being hands on with the painting and there is great pride in their achievements, the sense that they can instigate and implement change.

“I feel having access to space that has no defined use is essential, especially in today’s society where things seem more prescriptive.

“Space is priceless. Once it’s developed, it’s gone for good and all of the positive attributes for wellbeing, exercise, community engagement and interaction will be displaced and – potentially – lost forever.”

A 1953 coronation party on Brunswick Place and Caroline Place (both now demolished) with the Rose of Denmark in the background

The Rose of Denmark today is moored amidst the 1960s road network

Hotwells grew rapidly from the 1760s with the development of a spa based on water from hot springs making it one of Bristol’s most desirable neighbourhoods. As the spa declined in the early 19th century, the city’s port expanded. The Floating Harbour was completed in 1809, with Cumberland Basin and its shipping locks central to this huge feat of engineering. In 1963, an area of Hotwells including the 18th century Assembly Room, three entire streets, shops and five pubs were demolished to make way for the Cumberland Basin bridges scheme and piazza. The road system remains but the piazza with its fountains and nautical-themed play area was soon neglected.

The 1960s Cumberland Basin road system will disappear if plans for the Western Harbour get the go-ahead

In an email to Bristol24/7, Hotwells & Cliftonwood Community Association (HCCA) and Cumberland Basin Stakeholder Group (CBSG) chairman Dennis Gornall said:

“Concern was raised by some residents after mayor’s 2017 speech. I then agreed with councillor Mark Wright to establish the CBSG.

“We held a public meeting in April 2018 and about 80 people attended to hear officers from BCC tell us what was possibly in the pipeline. Trouble was no-one knew very much except that parts of the carriageway and the Plimsoll bridge need considerable investment to keep them good for the next 60+ years or they need replacing.

“It was clear that with the right alternative crossing of the river and (if necessary) the Cumberland Basin plenty of land could be freed up for development. We believe that it is this possibility that has interested the mayor and why we have subsequently seen and heard bits about the development of the ‘Western Harbour’. We have had one introductory meeting with officers from the mayor’s office

“Inevitably this sort of thing creates rumours. People get worried that more will be destroyed or that high rise will be built to swamp the warehouse buildings, or that green space, such as it is, will be lost etc etc. The hope is that by establishing a Stakeholder Group and pressing for Community Engagement as per the council’s Community Involvement Strategy we can enter a constructive dialogue with those who are in the process of planning for development as well as a chosen developer when we get that far.

“We have asked the mayor to ensure that artists impressions which are used to illustrate the potential for development are clearly marked as such, so that they do not give the impression that they are the mayor’s preferred option.

“We have asked for the boundary line of development to be adjusted such that Avonquay Island is not included, as currently this seems to be hindering the organisations who work from there getting more that five-year leases from the council which is not long enough to apply for funding to help secure their futures.

“We have also asked for sight of the ARUP report at the earliest opportunity as this seems critical to the decision re the highways and Plimsoll Bridge. We hope we might learn more on this in the new year.

“The CBSG is made up of residents, representatives of community interest bodies in the area and businesses (though currently not as many as we would like). We know this to be the very very early stages of what could be a very long-term programme. However, we hope that by establishing a credible interest group we can influence outcomes for the better for all.”

Bristol mayor Marvin Rees has called the Cumberland Basin an “old, ugly road network”

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