Temple Quarter, Bristol

[whole diary]

[Red Squirrel]

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!

[Celestial]

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.) 

[Noggin]

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 

[Red Squirrel]

How to increase train use by up to 35% with one simple trick
http://theconversation.com/how-to-increase-train-use-by-up-to-35-with-one-simple-trick-115222

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.

[grahame]

How to increase train use by up to 35% with one simple trick
http://theconversation.com/how-to-increase-train-use-by-up-to-35-with-one-simple-trick-115222

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^▸ (United Kingdom) ... 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!

[Red Squirrel]

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>

[Phantom]

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"?

[Red Squirrel]

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...

[grahame]

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.

Code:

body {
    background-color: #FFFFFF;    margin: 0px;
    padding: 0px;
    overflow-x: scroll;
    overflow-y: scroll;
    font-size: 100%;
	left: 0;
	right: 0;
	-webkit-touch-callout: none;
    -webkit-user-select: none;
    -khtml-user-select: none;
    -moz-user-select: none;
    -ms-user-select: none;
    user-select: none;
}

[Red Squirrel]

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!

[Red Squirrel]

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 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 won't mind if I quote their response to these proposals in full:

Bristol University – New Campus residential accommodation – Temple Island

The University has outline planning permission which determines the mass and height of the buildings on the new Temple Meads campus. The University has published the design for the residential buildings which will stand on the south side of Cattle Market Road; the image shows the view of them from Temple Meads Station.

The Society has consistently supported the University’s new campus and, from the outset, has said that the new campus should be distinguished by buildings as recognisably ‘Bristol’ as the Wills Memorial Building. The proposed architecture is disappointing. The buildings would be anonymous and indistinguishable from many of Bristol’s speculative office blocks. The tall orthogonal blocks have repetitious fenestration in elevations that have no horizontal hierarchy and minimal vertical articulation. They have no ‘tops’ or podiums. The dark colour of the proposed materials emphasises the buildings’ mass. Only the buildings’ height makes them ‘memorable landmarks’.

These ‘anywhere’ commercial structures do not indicate that they are part of an exciting future campus. The Temple Island buildings lack recognisable character or distinction. There is no better place in Bristol for a contemporary landmark building. Apart from the station, the site has no architectural context. The University has an unconstrained opportunity to use modern architecture and materials. There is no reason to refer to the nearby industrial heritage when the purpose of the new campus is to signal that Bristol University is at the forefront of the development of new technology, design and sustainability.

The site is at the heart of the developing commercial area that will transform and reunite this run-down area with the economic life of the city. It must be a beacon to attract inward investment into the city. Temple Meads Station is an example of how 19th century Bristol used new materials and architecture to signal the arrival of new technology and ideas.

[Bmblbzzz]

They are bland.

[Red Squirrel]

Lorry-damaged Bristol 'cheese-grater' bridge to reopen

A cycle and pedestrian bridge which was closed two years ago when a lorry was driven over it is to reopen.

Work to repair "extensive damage" caused to the metal deck panels on the 180ft (55m) Meads Reach structure in Temple Quay, Bristol, began in February.

The bridge, built in 2008, has been beset with issues, and was resurfaced with anti-slip panels after cyclists said it was hazardous in wet weather.

It is due to reopen on Saturday.

Source: BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page) See full article

[johnneyw]

Lorry-damaged Bristol 'cheese-grater' bridge to reopen

A cycle and pedestrian bridge which was closed two years ago when a lorry was driven over it is to reopen.

Work to repair "extensive damage" caused to the metal deck panels on the 180ft (55m) Meads Reach structure in Temple Quay, Bristol, began in February.

The bridge, built in 2008, has been beset with issues, and was resurfaced with anti-slip panels after cyclists said it was hazardous in wet weather.

It is due to reopen on Saturday.

Source: BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page) See full article

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

[Red Squirrel]

Protracted delays with the lorries insurers?

Exactly that, I understand.