This site lies between the New Cut and Coronation Road just before it joins Clift House Road. Underfall Yard is on the opposite bank of the New Cut. The land is occupied by a several low industrial buildings. Crest Nicholson (Crest) propose to demolish the site to build up to 158 flats with car parking, landscaping, access, infrastructure and a riverside pedestrian path.
The Society does not support the loss of employment land but, if Crest can justify the loss of employment use, the Society would support residential development. However, there should be a greater provision of employment space in a mixed-use development. Crest’s computer-generated image, viewed from A Bond Warehouse, gives an overall impression of the height and mass of the proposed development. The buildings would be 3 floors plus ground, which makes a better transition to the domestic townscape of the Coronation Road and the low-industrial buildings to the west than two earlier schemes to which the Society responded. Similarly, the development is more sympathetic to its riverbank setting when viewed from Cumberland Road. The scheme’s roofs mix pitched and flat roofs to respond to other Harbourside developments.
The Society suggests that all five blocks have pitched roofs. The angles and pitches would create an interesting skyline whether seen from Coronation Road or from the north of the New Cut. The Society has commented that the ambition to build as many as 158 units gives rise to design compromises. The Society has said that this development would be a more successful if it reduced the number of flats. To rearrange the units into fewer larger units would reduce the number of single aspect homes.
John Frenkel
Bristol Civic Society full response.
