Bristol: former Royal Mail sorting office building eventually chosen as new University city campus

[whole diary]

[JayMac]

I think the problem is it is a listed building can you believe it !!!!

No I don't. Can't see the former sorting office on any lists of listed buildings in Bristol.

[super tm]

I think the problem is it is a listed building can you believe it !!!!

No I don't. Can't see the former sorting office on any lists of listed buildings in Bristol.

Where did you get your info.  On checking the Bristol council site they say that there 4500 listed buildings in Bristol.  They have a list of the grade I but to find out if a building is grade II you have to email them.

[Chris from Nailsea]

There has, sadly, been a fairly steady deterioration in the state of the old sorting office at Temple Meads.

There's a picture taken in 2004, at http://www.bugpics.co.uk/143619-6.php

However, just two four years later in 2006 2008, when I think devon_metro took his photo, there were signs of amateur demolition becoming increasing apparent: http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l50/liamy_2006/swr/wba1.jpg

Today, I took this photo, just for comparison purposes:




Edit note: My erroneous assumption about the date of devon_metro's photo corrected: sorry, d_m! 

[JayMac]

A link to photos of the interior, with emphasis on the graffiti.

http://www.abandonedbutnotforgotten.com/exploring_the_old_sorting_office_in_bristol1.htm

[devon_metro]

My photo was dated feb 08 Chris.

[Chris from Nailsea]

My apologies, devon_metro: I had assumed '2006' in the image name was the date! 

[JayMac]

I think the problem is it is a listed building can you believe it !!!!

No I don't. Can't see the former sorting office on any lists of listed buildings in Bristol.

Where did you get your info.  On checking the Bristol council site they say that there 4500 listed buildings in Bristol.  They have a list of the grade I but to find out if a building is grade II you have to email them.

Whilst I'm not 100% sure that the old sorting office is not listed, it does not appear on Wikipedia's (admittedly incomplete) lists of Grade II or Grade II* buildings in Bristol.

If it were listed then I would've thought that - bearing in mind it's current condition - it would be included on the City Council's Listed Buildings At Risk Register.

[super tm]

Wikipedia shows 120 building out of a total of 4500.  Thats seems pretty incomplete to me

[devon_metro]

Its always bemuses me how it is so nicely lit at night!!

[JayMac]

Wikipedia shows 120 building out of a total of 4500.  Thats seems pretty incomplete to me

No, Wikipedia shows 120 'References' on the Grade II page. Some entries have multiple references. Don't forget the Grade II* list as well. Agreed still only a small percentaage of the total though.

However, back to your original assertion.

I think the problem is it is a listed building can you believe it !!!!

I'll believe it with evidence.

[Chris from Nailsea]

Thanks for posting that photo, devon_metro!  

Yes, it is rather bizarre, isn't it?  It seems the floodlights don't get vandalised, despite almost everything else on the site having been looted?

 

[inspector_blakey]

Why cant they be more progressive in this Country and build something new at Bristol, Reading or wherever like

Berlin Hauptbahnhof

http://www.hbf-berlin.de/site/berlin__hauptbahnhof/en/start.html

Temple Meads is up there with the most impressive stations in Europe in my humble opinion - are you seriously suggesting that it be pulled down and replaced with a giant greenhouse?  That wouldn't be "progressive", it would be a lunatic act of vandalism. All that's being debated here is pulling down a disused building next to it.

Superb as Berlin Hbf is, the situation was completely different from Bristol and Reading - it was a brand new, purpose built station that was built as an interchange when Berlin's rail network was reorganized to include a new north-south line. It's not a direct replacement for an older building on the same site, and there's no way it could have been built whilst maintaining a service. The rail system in Berlin also has more than its fair share of dingy, under-lit, crumbling and frankly intimidating stations. Try waiting for an S-bahn train at Warschauer Stra^e by yourself at night time and see how "progressive" that feels (and I doubt it's the worst by a long distance).

[TheLastMinute]

Looks like work might be starting soon....

Work planned for derelict Bristol Royal Mail building

Building work to transform a derelict former Royal Mail sorting office in Bristol could begin in the autumn, the BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page) has learned.

The block near Temple Meads railway station, on Cattle Market Road, has been empty for the past 14 years.

Developers Kian Gwan Land gained planning consent for the work in 2005 but are reapplying as that permission lapsed several years ago.

The first tenants are due to move in six months after work starts.

The first company to confirm it is moving to the site is music firm Vinyl Factory.

The owners are planning to use the ground floor of the building with recording studios, offices and exhibition space.

Mark Wadhwa, from Vinyl Factory, said discussions over the move had been "going on for a long time".

He said: "Quite a lot of work has been going on to strip it out and there's been a lot of environmental work going on in terms of tags [graffiti] which needed to be removed.

"The landlords are encouraging independent tenants to kickstart the development.

"They've committed to skin the building, landscape it and create a social enterprise centre."

Local councillor Brenda Hugill said she welcomed the news.

She said: "It really is a good story in and otherwise difficult time in the city."

The planning application can be viewed at http://planningonline.bristol.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=summary&keyVal=LIXFISDN0MC00.

TLM

[Chris from Nailsea]

From the Bristol Post:

"Turn former sorting office into car park for Bristol^s new arena"


The former sorting office

A pressure group is calling on the city council to knock down one of the city^s most notorious eyesore buildings and use the land as a car park for the planned indoor arena.

The Transport for Greater Bristol Alliance presented its plans for the former Royal Mail sorting office at a city council scrutiny meeting. The group is keen to get its voice heard as part of the plans to redevelop the area around Temple Meads railway station are being developed.

As reported in the Bristol Post the council is working on a scheme to build an ^80 million indoor arena on vacant land adjacent to Temple Meads station. If all goes to plan work on the long-awaited arena could get under way as early as 2017.

At the moment the scheme does not include car parking and the plan is to use a park and ride scheme to bus in visitors. However, the Alliance claim this would be a major mistake and would make the arena unattractive to potential operators and customers. The alliance believes the solution would be to use a Compulsory Purchase Order to buy the derelict sorting office and then turn it into a car park.

The building dominated the approach to Temple Meads station and has been left to fall into ruin ever since Royal Mail moved out to its new modern sorting office in Filton. Talks have been taking place between the owners of the building, the city council and the Local Enterprise Partnership in a bid to come up with a use for the empty building.

The Bristol Post understands that the council and the LEP^» (Local Enterprise Partnership - about) is considering using a CPO to take control of the situation if a solution cannot be agreed. A spokesman for the group said: ^We would wish to see an agreement drawn up where rail parking is combined with parking for the stadium site on the other side of the River Avon. A preferable site for a car park would be the GPO^‡(resolve) site accessed from Cattle Market Road, and might be best as a multi-storey. This would achieve several things: ease pressure upon the Friary; create easy car user access to the planned underground station concourse, and achieve parking for the future stadium. A financial agreement between the city and Network Rail would be necessary but if necessary the land should be subject to a CPO.^

The group is also calling on the planned redevelopment of Temple Meads station to include a purpose-built bus-rail interchange. The interchange would connect the rail and bus services in the city along with the new Metrobus system.

[bobm]

Be good to see some action.  My trains through Bristol seem to often use platform 15 nearest the building and it really is an eyesore - particularly from the station side.