A council-owned developer has already explored how many homes could be built there
17:00, 23 Jun 2025Updated 17:18, 23 Jun 2025
The SS Great Britain is one of Bristol’s most famous and popular visitor attractions.(Image: mattbuck)
A car park at a popular Bristol tourist attraction could soon be used to build over 150 apartments. Goram Homes is exploring plans to build flats at the SS Great Britain car park in the Harbourside.
The housing developer, owned by Bristol City Council, has explored how many homes could be built on the car park and discussed their plans with the trust that runs the historic ship. The development raises questions about how tourists would visit the SS Great Britain instead.
An update on the latest housing plans in Goram’s pipeline was given to councillors on the strategy and resources policy committee on Monday, June 16. Of the 153 homes planned, 92 would be for sale, 47 would be social rent, and 14 would be affordable home ownership.
Stephen Baker, managing director of Goram Homes, said: “We’ve looked at a capacity study for the site, so we’ve worked out what is the art of the possible. There’s a requirement to talk to trust about car parking.
“There have been a number of changes at the SS Great Britain Trust recently and I met with the new chief exec in the last six months. He has explained to me that they’re on a programme of forming their long term plan.
“What we’ve said is at the moment there’s no immediate plans for us to take forward the redevelopment of the car park. We’ll maintain dialogue with the SS Great Britain Trust and work together, and see how their plans emerge for their future use of the car park. But for now, it’s not on our immediate pipeline of work that we’re doing in the next 12 months.”
The car park is owned by the council and leased to the trust. Goram hasn’t yet applied for planning permission. The developer has pledged to work with “surrounding businesses and residents” as plans for the site are taken forward.
Green Councillor Patrick McAllister, representing Hotwells and Harbourside, said: “The trust is quite open to discussions. They just want to make sure that access for visitors to their site is protected and they would be very happy for that to be done by a public transport hub and so on.
“In terms of revenue that the council gets from the site, we’ll probably get more in council tax from a housing development than we do from the car park. But this is all very much further down in the pipeline. We don’t really know any specifics yet, so it’s a bit hard to make judgements on it at this point.”