Former BRI site Work restarts on student housing
TWe have recommenced the enabling ground works on the site of the former Bristol Royal Infirmary building.
HE transformation of the old Bristol Royal Infirmary site into a new student development is well underway.
Building works at the disused hospital on Marlborough Street, close to the existing BRI site, are back in full swing after being temporarily halted last year.
Hoardings erected along Lower Maudlin Street state that the Unite Students development is “coming in summer 2022”, and will include a karaoke room, a private gym, study spaces and a cinema room.
However, due to the coronavirus pandemic delaying the timeline, Unite was unable to confirm if it is still on track for 2022 completion.
A spokesperson said: “We have recommenced the enabling ground works on the site of the former Bristol Royal Infirmary building.
“All work on redeveloping this site was paused in March 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic and in light of this we are not currently in a position to be able to confirm the completion date for this development at this time.”
Bristol City Council finally approved the controversial plans in 2019, after years of wrangling and revisions dating back to 2015. Part of the old BRI hospital, including the Georgian frontage, will be maintained and converted into 62 residential apartments, of which 20 per cent will be reserved for essential workers at discounted prices.
A small chapel on the site, known as Fripps Chapel, will be refurbished and repurposed for community use.
Unite
The other buildings on site have been demolished, and a new student apartment block of up to seven storeys tall will be built in their place.
It will provide more than 400 student bedrooms and 123sqm of ground floor commercial floor space.
There will also be landscaping, a public square and cycle parking.
The planning application for the proposal, dated August 2019, stated: “The proposed development will provide much needed conventional residential housing as well as student accommodation on a sustainable brownfield site.
“[This will] retain and restore both locally and nationally significant heritage assets, and contributing positively to the functioning and development of Bristol city centre. Critically, the site has lay vacant and disused for two years, primarily on viability and deliverability grounds given the age, quantum and costs involved in restoring the building.”
The number of student beds was originally 416, but this was increased last year to 431 after the internal layout was tweaked.