Sid’s Cafe could receive listed building status

You might have known it most recently as Lockside, with a new restaurant due to open soon in its place overlooking the Cumberland Basin.

Those with longer memories could know the structure squeezed underneath McAdam Way as the Venturer’s Rest or Popeye’s Diner, with it opening in 1965 as a transport cafe.

Only Fools and Horses fans will also know it as Sid’s Cafe, appearing on several episodes of the classic BBC comedy in the 1980s.

As part of Historic England’s review of the listed building and scheduled monument designations in and around the Cumberland Basin and Underfall Yard, the cafe could be granted listed status.

It was constructed as part of the Cumberland Basin Bridges Scheme with its roof formed by the underside of the flyover above.

The building is not the only one that could receive more protection from Historic England following the review that “will consolidate the existing designations and consider some non-designated historic assets in the area for listing prior to the preparation of the Western Harbour Masterplan by Bristol City Council”.

Historic England have also carried out consultation reports on the quay walls and bollards around Cumberland Basin, the swing bridges, the dock master’s office and former ticket office, the Plimsoll Bridge control tower, and an electricity substation.

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One structure often overlooked is the electricity power house on Avon Crescent.

This substation was commissioned to take over the power supply for the docks which was formerly provided by steam boilers at Underfall Yard.

A hydraulic network extending across the length of the Floating Harbour, powering lock gates and swing bridges, as well as industrial processes within the corporation granary and tobacco warehouses.

It was the addition of the Ashton Avenue swing bridge – now part of the metrobus route – to the hydraulic network that pushed Underfall Yard’s steam boilers to their limit and plans for a new rotary substation were approved in 1905, with construction beginning in 1906.

The original blueprints for the electricity power house on Avon Crescent – image: Know Your Place

“The building is an early example of the Hennebique system of reinforced concrete construction,” says the Historic England consultation report.

“A letter from the City Electrical Engineer, H Faraday Proctor, to the City Engineer sought approval to use the new ferro-concrete system, and plans were drawn up by Louis Gustave Mouchel of the Hennebique Concrete Company.

“This innovative system brought the separate elements of post and beam into a single continuous structural framework.

“The building was equipped with six transformers, and was opulently fitted out with decorative ironwork, oak joinery and tiling, while the exterior was given a classical treatment.

“The interior was lit from a roof lantern, and tall windows, now blocked, would have provided a view of the modern technology within. The original transformers have been replaced.”

Inside the substation – photo: Know Your Place

Outside the substation today – photo: Martin Booth

Main photo: Martin Booth

Read next:

• ‘The way the council has handled the Cumberland Basin project is insulting’
• Bonded warehouses to remain ‘dominant built structures’ in Western Harbour vision
• Waterfront ‘institution’ cafe closing

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