17 of Bristol’s worst eyesores

The derelict former Royal Mail sorting office site on Cattle Market Road could soon be bought by Bristol City Council, with the cabinet this week approving funding proposals that might lead to its purchase. 

The building is an infamous eyesore in the city, especially when arriving by train, but it’s certainly not the only one.

Here are a few more.

1. It’s amazing what a lick of paint can do. The former Avon County Council headquarters looming over the Bearpit are now flats.

2. This private student accommodation block on Anchor Road is less than a year old. Space Invaders is an unusual design theme.

3. The former Norwich Union and Bank of England buildings in the north west corner of Castle Park hide from view and memory the ruined church of St Mary-le-Port. The coats of arms are to the left of the former main entrance the Norwich Union Life Society and to the right the Norwich Union Fire Society. Don’t expect redevelopment any time soon.

4. The BRI facade is due to get a facelift soon. Note the new helipad on top – opened last year then deemed unsuitable for helicopters. 

5. The rear of Cabot Circus presents a grandiose fuck-you to east Bristol.

6. Located next door to Cabot Circus are the terrifyingly ugly triumverate of Castlemead tower, NCP car park and Marriott hotel, joined to Castle Park by a long redundant concrete footbridge.

7. A glorious vista overlooking Christchurch Green in Clifton Village, just so long as you’re looking out not in.

8. The former headquarters of Bristol United Press has a roof garden on the sixth floor that used to be the place where newspaper executives congratulated themselves about long-forgotten successes.

9. Just another example of the hideous welcome that greets visitors by rail to Bristol is this derelict garage.

10. What a wasted opportunity most of the harbourside development has been. These flats were described by a Bristol24/7 reader on Facebook as looking like a Soviet version of a cheap Miami hotel.

11. The Holiday Inn Express is many people’s first glimpse of Bristol when leaving Temple Meads. Please never be tempted to have a drink at the Reckless Engineer pub on the ground floor.

12. These flats at the foot of Jacob’s Wells Road were loved by at least one city planner, who commissioned an almost identical set halfway up the hill. 

13. Numbers 31 and 32 Portland Square in St Paul’s are on the English Heritage Buildings at Risk Register. The once fine Georgian houses are in a state of near disrepair.

14. Another relic from the days of Avon County Council, who used this tower block as offices from 1973 before it was converted into a hotel with a bird’s-eye-view of the bus station.

15. The Seamen’s Church & Institute on Prince Street, opened in 1880, was described in Arrowsmith’s Dictionary of Bristol (1884) as “in the Venetian style of architecture. The decorations and the interior arrangements are exceedingly chaste, so much so that it is considered one of the prettiest of its kind in England.”

16. The view of Westmoreland House from Picton Street, which received another stay of execution this week as councillors voted to defer a decision over its redevelopment.

Read more about the latest plans for Westmoreland House and the Carriageworks.

What are some more Bristol eyesores? Please use the comments below.