The site faces east to Temple Way and south to the river Avon where the demolished Clerical and Medical building once stood. AXA, the developer, has appointed Allford Hall Monaghan, architects who have won the Sterling Award. The site is inside the Enterprise Zone where development must be employment led. The Society supports the long delayed development of this important site.
The Society supports the developer’s objectives, which are to improve connectivity to both Temple Quays and Cabot Circus with a high quality, cost and energy effective sustainable design. The location on the edge of the Enterprise Zone and the excellent transport links make this an ideal development site for employment.
The Society has strong reservations about the overall mass of the building, which substantially exceeds the mass and height of the existing planning consent. The office blocks would dominate the already substantial buildings on Temple Way. The tallest block would be out of scale with the ‘wharfside’ character of this stretch of the river and it create a water front of a jagged line of buildings of vastly different heights. The design ‘turns its back’ on the historic context of the attractive churchyard of St. Philip and St. Jacob’s the Narrow Plain frontage, which it would shadow for much of the day. The site creates an opportunity to maximise the historic relationship with the Floating Harbour. The creation of access steps down to the river would be a pleasant feature. The church is a constraint that gives the opportunity to improve its setting. There is insufficient detail to assess the effect of the buildings on the wider views.
To locate this site, use this link to the Google map.
Bristol Civic Society’s response [PDF, 381KB] Right-click to download, click to view.
John Frenkel
johnfrenkel@blueyonder.co.uk