St Philip's Marsh, page 3: Guiding principles for St Philip's Marsh

The introduction pages to this consultation set out some guiding principles for the whole of Bristol Temple Quarter. These are how the guiding principles apply to St Philip’s Marsh:

Integrated and Connected

• Create strong connections with surrounding neighbourhoods – reconnect communities in East Bristol, provide access to new facilities and connect new development to surrounding neighbourhoods with improved travel links.
  
  
• Support and enable low carbon mobility – provide infrastructure that promotes active travel and public transport on low traffic, low speed streets.
  
  
• Adopt an integrated design and placemaking approach to flood defence provision – flood defence design along the Feeder Canal and River Avon corridors should include habitat enhancement, landscaped areas, public walkways and cycle paths and flood resilient frontages to buildings.
  
  
• Create a resilient access and movement network – create a network of streets to ensure access and evacuation from the area in the event of major flooding.
  Integration of St Philip's Marsh with other nearby areas

Inclusive Economic Growth

• Promote a flexible approach to development plots - improve street layout, with varying size of development areas which could also include the adaptation of existing buildings.
  
  
• Establish a leading innovation district – with a variety of employment space including accommodation for start-ups, established SMEs and larger scale businesses focussed on science and technology, nanoengineering, advanced manufacturing, green economy businesses, and creative and digital industries.
  
  
• Transform existing industrial land, increasing density and diversifying land use – focus on land east of Albert Crescent where there is a need to implement flood resilient measures and to promote low carbon development.
  
  

Quality Places

• Create a legible layout of street blocks and spaces – including establishing continuous building frontages round the edges of street blocks to improve natural surveillance of public places.
• Integrate community facilities and mixed uses from the early phases of development – to ensure adequate community facilities are in place to support new and neighbouring residents, workers and visitors.
• Carefully considered density – focus on mixed use development with opportunities to integrate residential development with employment, commercial or leisure uses within each street block. Opportunities exist for vertical mixing (where each floor has a different type of use), a mix of housing types including affordable, and street blocks with inner courtyards.
• Design buildings to last – designed and constructed to high standards, building design should incorporate green walls and roofs, and to boost biodiversity and wellbeing. Apartments and houses should be capable of adaptation over time, meeting the needs of occupiers at different life stages.
• Listed buildings should be positively integrated into future development and adapted to new uses – and opportunities should be taken for non-listed historic buildings to be integrated into development where commercially viable.
  
  
• Adapt existing buildings to new uses – to harness the character and identity of the area, have less environmental impact and create creative and low-cost spaces that attract forward thinking businesses.
  
  

Quality spaces

• Create a public realm of distinction– a high quality public realm network should facilitate movement within and through the area, support community health and wellbeing and enhance biodiversity. The network would include:
  1. an enhanced and expanded River Avon Greenway including pocket spaces, a revitalised Sparke Evans Park and integrated flood defences.
  2. An improved Feeder Canal tow path promenade integrating flood defences.
  3. A new park space within North West St Philip's Marsh.
     
     
• Integrating green infrastructure – Tree planting within public street design, incorporation of sustainable urban drainage, circulation routes within major developments incorporating significant green infrastructure, spaces and features.
  
  
• Revitalise Sparke Evans Park – to provide a welcoming and inclusive green space.
  
  
• Industrial Heritage – existing buildings and structures could be incorporated into future development and public realm improvements.

Feeder Canal

Walking and cycling path along the River Avon

Sparke Evans Park 
Vibrant and creative communities 

• Create a vibrant new residential neighbourhood - Promote residential development across the area interspersed with a range of other uses to create a successful and vibrant place. The opportunity exists to create a built and natural environment that supports low carbon lifestyles and community health and wellbeing including via new walking, cycling and public transport networks.
  
  
• There are significant opportunities to deliver a broad range of housing types and tenures including family and affordable housing, supporting the creation of a mixed and balanced community served by community facilities, local retail, food and drink and open space uses. Through residential developments there is the potential to incorporate outdoor community spaces, children’s play areas and food growing areas supporting the wellbeing of existing and future residents.