‘We can shape a positive future for Bristol by challenging developers’

In the coming months, Bristol City Council’s development control committee will meet to decide a number of major planning applications in the city centre.

The scale and reach of these applications, with others in the pipeline, could fundamentally change the character of parts of its historic heart.

This is a critical time for Bristol; a moment for all of us with a role in the city’s future to seize and shape positively.

At Historic England, we recognise that renewal on this scale brings significant opportunities – the potential to provide much-needed housing of all types and sizes, reconnect parts of the city, and right past planning wrongs.

Our ambitions should be high. Bristol needs to grow, and it should rightly compete with other cities nationally and internationally to attract investment, business and talent.

Historic England’s South West headquarters is in Finzels Reach – photo: Martin Booth

But ambition needn’t come at the cost of what makes Bristol special. Its long and sometimes complex history has produced a cityscape rich in character and meaning.

There are so many landmark sites and buildings: exquisite medieval churches like St Mary Redcliffe, Brunel’s Temple Meads station, the Floating Harbour, the site of the Bristol Bus Boycott, to name just a handful.

These, and the city’s everyday heritage – parades of shops, colourful terraces, public parks – are the things that people value and hold in great affection.

They are a huge source of civic pride. They are part of what make Bristol distinctive.

Yet the schemes to be decided in the coming months, including the redevelopment of the Premier Inn and Debenhams sites, risk eroding the character of the city centre, the layers of history that make Bristol what it is.

They fall short of the quality Bristol deserves. And we are not alone in our concerns.

The Barr’s Street scheme on the site of Debenhams features a 28-storey tower described as “a new northern gateway into Broadmead” – image: AWW

Plans for St James Square on the site of the current Premier Inn include a 28-storey purpose-built student accommodation tower and an 18-storey “co-living” tower- image: Olympian Homes

Quite simply, the proposals could be better – better rooted in an understanding of the city’s historic character, and better in terms of design excellence for our regional capital.

It is achievable and it’s what the city and its many diverse communities deserve, now and in the future.

Bristol is already home to some excellent new developments that are proof of what’s possible.

At Quakers Friars, buildings dating back to the 13th century Dominican friary have been sensitively incorporated and now house sympathetically designed shops and restaurants.

At Finzels Reach, home to our own office, old and new buildings coexist happily and a thriving and dense new city quarter has been created.

The completed phases of the Wapping Wharf development are superb, as is the Paintworks. We’re proud to have worked with Bristol City Council on many of these schemes.

These developments are recognisably ‘of Bristol’. They respond to the grain and architecture of the city and they have soul.

Buildings and places with soul are not just ‘nice to have’ – they help us to thrive, providing economic and social benefit.

Evidence shows that historic buildings and places that are well cared for support jobs, attract investment, make people feel proud, boost wellbeing, and make a valuable contribution to tough net zero targets.

Paintworks phase 4 is currently under construction – image: Paintworks

Creating successful places that benefit people and communities starts with sound policy locally and regionally.

And Bristol City Council should be commended for its strategic thinking to shape large parts of the city centre, including emerging visions for Broadmead and Temple Quarter.

The council also has strong policies already in place to guide future development and decision-making, including for taller buildings.

Good quality taller buildings in the right place can be part of the solution.

However, when that policy and guidance doesn’t appropriately underpin development proposals, we all have a responsibility to constructively challenge developers.

At Historic England, we advise how current proposals can better respond to their surroundings and we have submitted our views on the major applications to be decided in the coming months.

The responsibility now lies with the council’s planning committee members, who will need to weigh up a range of issues.

But we would encourage them to be brave in their decision-making and to take any opportunity to further challenge and shape what’s currently on the table.

One of our duties as a society is to ensure that we pass our heritage on to future generations in a better state than we found it in.

Places must change to meet the needs of people and communities, but change can incorporate and celebrate what makes a place special.

If we get it right in Bristol, the city will continue to grow and thrive economically, and to move us, inspire us and make us proud, just as it does today.

Bristol and its people deserve the very best – a future built on a remarkable past.

This is an opinion piece by Rebecca Barrett, South West regional director at Historic England

Main photo: Griffiths

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