Bristol in 50 years

As part of a series of articles and opinion pieces looking at how Bristol is shaping up for the future, Bristol24/7 looks into our crystal ball and finds ourselves 50 years in the future.

It is 2065 and the bronze statue of George Ferguson on College Green is being torn down. People have arrived in the city centre in front of the former City Hall, which was developed into a five-star hotel and spa in 2028, mostly in electric cars down the M32 tunnel which is now covered in a luscious green park.

Others have come on the tram network, which replaced the MetroBus a decade after passenger numbers dwindled shortly after its maligned 2016 launch.

Every other building around the swelling crowds in the city centre is now student accommodation, including the Colston Hall. All other music venues have been forced out of town or underground due to noise complaints from the offices which have been turned into apartment blocks one by one.

Students don’t have to go far from the centre to university – only having to walk to Kingsdown, which is now entirely owned by the University of Bristol, the city’s biggest company.

That is apart from students in the converted Catholic Cathedral in Clifton, one of the more controversial planning schemes during Ferguson’s 25-year tenure.

Nearby Clifton Village is perhaps the only place that hasn’t changed in 50 years. Apart from the biggest underground car park in Europe which lies underneath Christchurch Green.

Bristol is a super-authority which now encompasses all urban areas from halfway across the Severn Bridge to the other side of the quaint suburb of Bath

Giant wind turbines on top of the Suspension Bridge’s two towers powers much of the city, while the rest of the energy is taken from the 16 tidal lagoons which stretch all the way to Weston-super-Mare.

A giant tidal barrier at Avonmouth, finally built in 2034, means Hotwells and Bedminster are now drying out for the first time since the great floods of 2030-33.

The floodwaters engulfed the two areas, with Ashton Court mansion, now another luxury hotel, acting as home for 800 Bedminster refugees made homeless for two years.

The once-shiny new Ashton Gate, completed on schedule in 2016, was washed away, having been built using cheap 2010s materials.

The disaster forced the most unlikely of mergers with Bristol Rovers, whose Memorial Ground fell down after the club spent all their money on a court appeal to force the only Sainsbury’s left in Britain to give them compensation for the 2018 plans to move to UWE.

The two clubs now play at Eastville on the site of the old Rovers ground which had been derelict since the giant Tesco was closed due to sliding sales in 2027. Fans walk from the centre down the M32 park or drive down the buried road which emerges from the ground intermittently.

Since the M32 was buried, St Werburgh’s and Montpelier have connected with Easton, forcing gentrification all the way to St Philips. Barton Hill is now the hippest place to live in Bristol, with all of the high-rise blocks, sold off by what was left of the council in 2040, occupied by rival artist cooperatives.

St Paul’s is now the home of two restaurants with Michelin stars: Tasties on Ashley Road and one in the former Star & Garter pub on Brook Road.

Parts of Stoke Bishop which border the Downs have fallen into disrepair with low demand from house-buyers after the entire recreation area was named the UK’s first regulated dogging arena in 2023.

Tourists still come up as far as the Triangle, where the ss Great Britain lies in the centre of after it was beached as the great flood receded. The council moved Concorde next to Brunel’s boat to form the Transport Museum of Bristol – or T Shed – which also includes an original pillar of the M32.

Just at the bottom of Park Street the good citizens of Bristol are scrambling for a piece of the giant bronze Ferguson following the biggest protest since the Redfield riots of 2044 which saw the burning to the ground of the last Tesco in town.

Police finally disperse the relic-carrying protesters across the entirely pedestrianised city centre as they scurry back to their cars or hop on the underwater tube at the bottom of the Floating Harbour.

Look out for real ideas from some of the city’s most influencial thinkers this week on where our city will be in the next 50 years.

See our interactive map of what is currently in the pipeline for Bristol.