Great Western Coffee Shop

Plans are hatching for a comprehensive redevelopment of the area to the east of Bristol Temple Meads Station, roughly bounded by the Feeder Canal and Silverthorne Lane. The development will consist of 750 bedspaces of student accommodation, 400 new homes, and a 1600-space secondary school. Details are here: https://silverthornelane.com/index.php

Outline planning permission is also being sought for another development of 760 student bedspaces on Feeder Road, and further new homes and entertainment venues.

The new University Campus, on the site of the old Cattle Market Road sorting office, will accommodate a further 1500 students, and a range of commercial outlets.

When these developments are complete, thousands of additional people will live within a short walk of the station.

I think it is fair to say that things are on the up as far as Temple Meads Station is concerned. For 179 years it has sat stubbornly on the periphery of central Bristol minding its business; now, at last, it looks like Bristol has decided to come to it!

Going off on a tangent, but I do wonder how long before the university/student bubble will burst. The government is likely to cut tuition fees as they have been told (and agreed) that loans expected to be written off (over half) needs to be costed for today, so that will result in a £12Bn increase in spending each year.  So the current system is unaffordable.  Lower tuition fees means less money for unis to expand.

And we are hearing often how many students don't end up with higher pay, and apprenticeships are a better option for those of lower academic ability. Not really a surprise there.

So I wouldn't be investing in shiny new student flats that may turn out to result in an oversupply of accommodation in a few years time. (Not that I can afford to of course.) 

It's going to take a while to complete the demolition of the old sorting office, but when I went pas the other day there seemed to be some kind of ground investigation work taking place on the University's half of Arena Island, so perhaps construction will be starting before too long.

The Silverthorne Lane project looks good, particularly the school. One of the issues holding Bristol back is that there is a shortage of decent secondaries, leading many to either go religious, go private, or move out of the city once their kids get to a certain age.

As you say, there are a lot of new developments within walking distance of Temple Meads. For those interested, there's a huge new office development to the north of Temple Quay on Avon Street, a smaller one on the other side of Temple Way, plus more at Redcliff and the final phase of Paintworks is about to be built on the old Endemol studios. That will further build the case for rapid transit and some kind of a regional S-Bahn.

As for the student bubble. Indeed, for a while it's been apparent to many that if you're not too academic but want a nice, reasonably paid, secure job then you are probably better off doing a good apprenticeship and ending up as a qualified electrician, fitter, mechanic etc. Whilst much is made of the low numbers of kids from South Bristol going to university, I'll bet that by the age of 40, a fair chunk of them end up in secure, skilled jobs and as well paid as those who went to university.

Nonetheless, for an increasing number of professions, a degree is a prerequisite, and if anything, the fact that they carry a hefty price tags seems to be pushing people to get the most of their money in terms of prestige, academic record, sports and leisure facilities and general ambiance. Great if you are Bristol, probably not so good if you are Grimsby or Newport. So the numbers are likely to hold up for Bristol and UWE, at least whilst the student loans system lets kids pay for them on the never-never. And indeed, evidence seems to suggest that the enormity of the loans they are racking up leads many kids to say "sod it", opting to live comfortable lives in nice accommodation over minimising borrowing. And of course part-time jobs are relatively plentiful in most big cities too.

As for the student property bubble, my family's business is student property (not in Bristol), and what seems to be happening is that students are favouring new-build over traditional houses and conversions, wanting to be far more centrally located. There's anecdotal evidence to suggest that, at least in Sheffield, there's an agreement between the City and universities to get as many students into purpose-built acommodation as possible. I think you're right, there's probably an element of oversupply, though that will probably sort itself out relatively quickly with discounts, landlords changing their offering to target young professionals, corporate lets, AirBnB, language students etc. I don't think we'll see large numbers of empty blocks.

But I think the really interesting effect is going to be on the 'classic' rental market (i.e. terraced). We certainly have a number of properties unlet for next year that in years past would have been let last November. It's a *very* competive market, and when you add in the effects of tax changes and licensing/compliance costs, I reckon that come July, there will be a lot of student property either on the market as single family homes, or just for sale. In fact, you can already see it in the Bristol property listings. It will probably be a very good thing if it effectively increases the supply of inner-city family homes and 'gentrifies' areas, but I suspect that it will be a little too subtle to be picked up by newspapers and politicians 

This is certainly apposite in the case of the new developments to the east of Temple Meads. As an example, the walk from the proposed student accommodation on Feeder Road to Platform 15 is currently between 1.1 to 1.24km (depending on which way you go); when the eastern entrance opens this will reduce to about 650m.

I was just picking further up on that too ... bringing the exercise right back from Sydney to the UK ... I have done some measurements for Melksham station - in the back on of an industrial area, with one access at present, and what extra exits would mean in terms of distance saved

Add access to	current metres	new access metres
Foundry Close	700	150
A365 bridge	250	100
Melksham Metal Gate	350	150
Southbrook Rd	800	350

The first two ARE on the cards with the 'master plan' .. the latter two not, BUT the A365 bridge saving of 150 metres will be made (ever the optimist) when that opens.  Just need to find either a lot of money or a sledge hammer sized official order to get past a ransom strip!

There is a drop-in exhibition of the Silverthorne Lane plans on the 8th and 9th of May; by the looks of it it will be on P14 at Temple Meads - though they've given the address in a rather eccentric way, so I'm not quite sure.

Details are here: https://silverthornelane.com/index.php?timelineid=2

<web developer rant intensity=0.65>
As a sidenote, whoever did their website has disabled cut-and-paste, which I take to mean that they don't want their content used elsewhere. Very easy to bypass - they've not taken the additional irritating step of disabling right-click, so you can 'view page source' and copy from there. But I'll respect their intent, even if it means their message is less widely published...
</web developer rant>

Ahh yeah, seen this mentioned elsewhere it will be held in the passenger shed, P14 a bit misleading for anyone assuming it has anything to do with the current platform numbering

As a side issue to copying, why not use the "snipping tool"?

I suppose there is a Linux version of this, but I chose to respect what I took to be their intent...

Looks like the "user-select" which I suspect is templated into every page on their site.  I suspect that no-one has thought it through on a page by page basis ... they even encourage you to check out their tweets at the base of https://silverthornelane.com/index.php but don't let you copy/paste their specially shortened URLs to your Messenger /Skype contacts.

Ah, OK, thanks!; I'd not come across that technique. As you imply, it's a pretty bad idea to do it by default to every page; arguably it's a pretty bad idea full stop!

Bristol University have published further details of their emerging plan for buildings on the Cattle Market Road (old sorting office) and Temple (Arena as was) Island. I am posting here rather than the Temple Meads Station Redevelopment (http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=10737.msg111208#msg111208) topic as this seems a more logical place.

The contents of the consultation exhibition boards are here: https://www.bristol.ac.uk/media-library/sites/temple-quarter-campus/Exhibition%20boards%20low%20res.pdf . They contain quite a lot of information.

I'm sure Bristol Civic Society (https://www.bristolcivicsociety.org.uk/temple-island-residential-proposals/) won't mind if I quote their response to these proposals in full:

They are bland.

Blimey, I thought it had been forgotten about. Does anyone know why it took so long? Protracted delays with the lorries insurers?

Exactly that, I understand.

Yes I remember that problem when I worked for a county council it took months to get them to agree and then it was only a few weeks before another lorry hit it and we had to do it all over again. Fortunately the second time we managed to get the money to raise it a little bit and I don't think anyone has hit it since.

Just to be clear, in this instance someone drove a lorry over a pedestrian/cycle bridge and wrecked the deck. I suspect that the bridge will be better-protected now!

It definitely is, new bollards have been put in place at each end (and on the ends of the neighbouring bridge). It also lasted many years before it happened the first time so not exactly a common occurrence.

The length of time it has taken to fix has been amazing. Even this week they only had one, or perhaps two pole working on it at any one time. At least it should stop the continuous arguments between cyclists and pedestrians.

Interestingly the diversion costs me around 3 minutes per day, over 18 months that has added up to 16.5 hours going the extra distance to the next door bridge. And peope wonder why productivity is lower in the UK...

The delay was due to the protracted nature of the insurance claim.

Meanwhile, the foot/cycle path alongside the River Avon from Victor Street (by the railway bridge) to Cattle Market Road was due to reopen on the 17th May, now that work on the new footbridge to Temple Island is complete. The new bridge won't be open for a while; it was built, as I understand it, to allow coach parties to get to an arena that was going to be built around there somewhere after they'd been dropped off on Albert Road. Presumably it'll find an alternative use!

See here for more details: https://www.bristoltemplequarter.com/key-projects/infrastructure-st-philips-footbridge/

I would go down and take some pix, but I've done my back in...

Ouch! Speedy recovery RS.

My sympathys to you RS.

Thanks - it's not as bad as all that; just makes me reluctant to get on my pushbike for fear of making it worse!

You need a new bike! Something like this:
(https://www.bikefix.co.uk/sites/default/files/styles/product_full/public/xp8220370.jpg,qitok=bo2Y2wUU.pagespeed.ic.0gNlFx9KT8.webp)

Then again, maybe you don't...
GWS

Is the neighbouring bridge you mention the snakey one that makes a rattling sound when anyone cycles, or even pulls a wheelie case, over it? (I think it's officially called the Valentine Bridge but no one seems to use that name in practice.)

Yes, that is the one. I also find the surface very easy to trip on.

I witnessed one lunchtime a fire drill for the Burgess Salmon building (yellow one). It looked like the assembly point was the other side of the bridge. I hope the bridge was designed well as it was completely rammed with the hundreds of people from that office trying to get through the single file cycle barriers on the other side. The poor people coming the other way stood no chance.

So that was where it went !
It was being built on the land for months and then suddenly disappeared one weekend !

Some nice drone shots in this video by UoB: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFk5pxrUmZc

...which was embedded in this clickbaity-sounding article in the Bristol Post:

Source, and full article: https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/business/bristols-city-centre-set-move-2903617

I'd never heard of the colourworks before. Sounds hip now, like the Paintworks. (https://www.paintworksbristol.co.uk/home/)

Does have rather a modish ring, doesn't it? I had assumed the works must have been obliterated when BRD (or '82A' as you youngsters will probably refer to it) was built, but they clearly survived - at least, initially:

(http://bristol-rail.co.uk/w/images/thumb/a/ad/Bath_Road_Depot_Track_Plan_1903.jpg/702px-Bath_Road_Depot_Track_Plan_1903.jpg)
Image source: Bristol Rail Archive (http://bristol-rail.co.uk/wiki/Bath_Road_Depot)

From more recent old maps it looks like the works to the east of the B&E main line, which were accessed via a bridge under the railway, were cut off (and in part demolished) when Temple Meads Station was expanded in the 1930's.

What a wonderful plan. I like it very much. Looks like the Colourworks was approximately on the site of the current dogs' home!

No, the Dogs' Home is just off the bottom right of the map, on the other side of the Avon - see this view: https://goo.gl/maps/kpmh7KPPFQhn48fF7

Of course. I was totally misreading the plan.  :-[
Interesting to see the linoleum works top right, I wonder when that closed?

Ed: It was part of, or associated with, the Colourworks. Still curious to learn it was made there. AFAIK it's only made in Scotland now.

Legal and General's vision for Arena Temple Island, Bristol has been published (https://thebristolmayor.files.wordpress.com/2020/01/09.01.2020-proposal-for-temple-island_lg-final.pdf) on the Mayor's Blog. A lot of nice pictures and not much detail, but interesting to see (on p.18) a new pedestrian route from Bath Road towards the new 'back entrance' of Temple Meads.

Would that be using the currently named "Bridge To Nowhere" that was installed fairly recently or have I got my bearings all wrong here?

Yes it would and no you haven't. This would link through ascending levels (platforms) through the site up to Bath Road, just south of the girder bridge.

I wonder if the "Bridge to Nowhere" tag (as coined by the Evening Post, I think) will persist after it actually goes somewhere? This is, after all, how places and things sometimes get their names.

That would be madness. It would be like continuing to call a 570-year-old pub the New Inn...

Funnily enough, I had a pint in one such place recently.

Names can be problematic, but it is true that new places can acquire a local moniker. I once saw a sign for "Wheelwash Lane" in a new estate somewhere. Turns out that the site entrance was close to there when the area was being transformed from lush farmland and pasture into an exciting new development of shoddily built 2 and 3 bedroom houses. The wheelwash for lorries leaving the site was there, and the road was known as that by so many people that it was made official.

In Bristol, the Old Bridewell was long our central nick, the New Bridewell was the concrete monolith built as a headquarters for the police force, around the corner. That has since been demolished, and something new built - should that be the New New Bridewell or the Old New Bridewell?

In one of the villages in the Stroud Valleys (I'm afraid I can't remember which one) there are houses called the Old Police Station and the Old Nick. Both accurate but I'm not sure which was first.

Seems like an ineffectively redacted press release from BCC sheds some doubt as to whether a conference centre and hotel will actually be built on "arena island". This rather undermines Mayor Marv's reassurances about a suitable alternative use if it's true.

For once, Bristol Evening Post/Bristol Live, might have a bit of a scoop.

https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/details-temple-island-deal-accidentally-3792175

I'm amazed that the Post hasn't taken this further. The whole Arenal affair was beginning to look like a big cosy arrangement between the mayor and his Malaysian pals, whether or not it was. Now, it looks as though he is about to expose the Council to some potentially large bills without asking them first, to give Legal and General carte blanche. Those bills could easily amount to the extra costs he was supposed to be saving Bristol from by dumping the Arenal plan.

Mayors passim have been hung out to dry for less.