Bristol: Revised plans for Wapping Wharf development

Revised proposals for the area have gone to the council

Revised proposals for changes to Bristol's harbourside have been submitted to the city council.

Developers have significantly revised plans for Wapping Wharf, currently home to dining venues in shipping containers, after a consultation.

The plans feature a 10-storey housing block as well as spaces for independent restaurants and shops.

Imogen Waite, co-owner of restaurants Cargo Cantina and Gambas: "The plans are really exciting."

She added: "They will enable us to push forward with our businesses, developing something that's going to be long-lasting and stand the test of time.

"The plans will give us the opportunity to put sustainability into the heart of what we've doing because we're building from the ground up."

Wapping Wharf first opened in 2016 and hosts only Bristol-owned independent businesses in a selection of shipping containers that were meant to be temporary.

The shipping containers have become part of the Bristol harbourside, but they were always planned to be temporary

The first set of initial proposals for the permanent plans were put forward in 2022 by owners and developer Umberslade, and since then they have been finalising proposals during a two-year consultation.

The development is arranged around a two-storey retail and workspace podium, as well as a 10-storey building which will contain homes, with terraced restaurants arranged down one side, with an open-air rooftop shipping container restaurant and viewing terrace on the sixth floor.

Outdoor restaurants would be a feature of the new Wapping Wharf

A further four 'wings' of residential apartment buildings rise from the podium, ranging between five and nine storeys.

In total 245 homes will be created, with 20% of which will be affordable.

A permanent home for the businesses in CARGO will be created with independent businesses selling produce in a covered market called CARGO Hall, surrounded with takeaways and casual dining businesses with outdoor seating.

Key changes to the original plans include removing a double-height restaurant on the top of the ten-storey apartment building, as well as restaurants from upper levels, lowering the building and redesigning CARGO hall.

The restaurants currently in Wapping Wharf have been consulted

Stuart Hatton, managing director of Umberslade, said they listened "very carefully" to feedback.

"We've sat down with practically all the traders at CARGO, who we all have strong relationships with, to understand how they want to develop their businesses within the new building to make sure it really meets their individual needs.

"We have agreed with most of them exactly where they would be located and although they understand that major development like this takes time, they're very excited about the prospect of moving into a permanent home where they can flourish," he said.

Developers want the site to become the 'go to' place in Bristol

Tessa Lidstone, co-owner of Box-E restaurant says: "Wapping Wharf is more than just a physical building, it's the community here.

"The shipping containers were a surprise hit and an important stepping-stone for many of us starting businesses for the first time but we knew they were only ever a meanwhile use while the site got developed.

"If you look at how the plans have changed, they've now got a lot of the CARGO personality in them."

The full planning application for part one of the project will be registered on Bristol City Council's planning portal shortly and the Council will then undertake a period of statutory consultation.