Land at Little Paradise and Stafford Street Bedminster
In the image Little Paradise and Stafford Street are set perpendicular from East Street which runs across the top left-hand corner. Dalby Avenue completes the rectangle at the bottom right of the image. To the right, on the east side of Stafford Street, stands the proposed 21-storey tower of St. Catherine’s Court. The site has an unbuilt permission for a 16-storey tower. The Society regrets that it cannot support the current scheme to erect buildings between 4- and 17-storeys to create 329 market rental apartments.
The Society supports the principle of residential development on the site and the proposed improvements to Little Paradise and Stafford Street. The proposal would overshadow and harm the amenities of the occupants to the properties in East Street and to the west of Little Paradise and would overbear the surrounding domestic scaled streets. In Dalby Avenue the south tower alongside the mass of St. Catherine’s Place would overpower the passer-by and harm the placemaking purpose of local planning policy.
The massive scheme does not attempt to integrate with the other Bedminster Green development sites or with the Bedminster town centre. It is critical for successful urban design to integrate into the adjoining streets of traditional buildings. The Society continues to support redevelopment of this land but on Urban Living principles. A perimeter building of amplified height would reproduce the historic street pattern. A development of an equal height to the attractively redeveloped St. Catherine’s House could produce an interesting and less oppressive Dalby Avenue elevation.
Bristol Civic Society’s full response [PDF]
John Frenkel
johnfrenkel5@gmail.com