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Bristol University’s plans to build a brand new £300 million campus on part of Temple Island have been recommended for approval.
The planning application relates to the detailed design of the academic buildings which will be built on the site of the former Royal Mail Sorting Office.
The site was sold by Bristol City Council to the University of Bristol in 2017.
(Image: Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios / University of Bristol)
The university secured outline planning permission for the new campus in 2018, and the former sorting office was demolished last year.
In its place will be new research, enterprise and teaching buildings which will make up the academic part of the Temple Quarter Enterprise Campus, which the university hopes will provide a “striking new landmark” for the city.
In October last year Bristol City Council approved the detailed design of the student residential accommodation part of the campus, despite concerns about its ‘Lego’ design.
The accommodation will be arranged over three buildings up to 21-storeys high, and be home to up to 953 students.
Officers have recommended the scheme for approval, but a final decision will be made by the authority’s development control committee next Wednesday (March 18).
This application represents the last stage for the University of Bristol to gain planning permission for the development of this new campus for the city.
(Image: Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios / University of Bristol)
It was originally meant to share Temple Island with an arena. But in September 2018 Bristol mayor Marvin Rees officially scrapped plans for an arena at the site, agreeing instead to push forward with plans for a ‘mixed use’ development, which may include a conference centre, housing, offices and shops.
The new seven-acre campus will be home to the university’s new school of management, its centre for innovation and entrepreneurship and much of its digital engineering activity.
It will provide teaching, research and innovation space for 3,000 students, around 800 members of staff and external partners from business and the city’s communities.
And will also include the recently announced Bristol Digital Futures Institute and the Quantum Technology Innovation Centre.
The ground floor of the main academic building – which will reach five-storeys high – will host exhibitions, public events such as lectures and film screenings, pop-up catering, a café and shop.
The rest of the building will be made up of a mix of research, teaching and social spaces.
According to the university the campus will be car-free and proposals include a new transport hub at the entrance to the Cattle Market site which could accommodate extended public bus services.
