A final decision will be made by councillors next week
Illustration of the proposed new roof terrace on top of the V-Shed building at Bristol’s Floating Harbour(Image: Conversation PR)
A rooftop bar is likely coming to the Harbourside after Bristol City Council planners changed their minds on granting permission. Planning officers are now recommending that councillors vote to approve the plans for the bar on Bordeaux Quay next week.
The rooftop terrace would stretch across three bars in the heart of the harbour – V-Shed, Ritorno Lounge and Coyote Ugly.
But Padmanor Investments Limited, which owns the building, was previously told that council planners were likely to recommend the plans be refused.
Heritage experts warned the rooftop bar would block views of Bristol Cathedral, for people standing in front of the Arnolfini on the other side of the water.
But a new report, published ahead of the development control B committee on April 30, says the plans should be approved.
In the report, planning officers said: “The assessment of this application is considered to be somewhat finely balanced. Significant weight has been placed on the need to support economic growth, considering local business needs and wider development opportunities.
“Due to the scale and nature of the development, it is anticipated to contribute to the continued vitality of the Harbourside leisure frontage and evening and night-time economy.
“Significant weight should be attached to the likely positive economic benefits, together with benefits to the leisure, visitor and tourism economy and public in general.”
Revised proposal, with the pergola height lowered and solar panels laying flat on top of the V-Shed building at Bristol’s Floating Harbour(Image: Conversation PR)
The plans include installing a pergola with retractable canopies, and solar panels. There would be space for an extra 154 covers, and revellers would enjoy views across the harbour. As the terrace would boost the city’s hospitality sector, that could trump heritage concerns about the view of the cathedral.
Green councillor Patrick McAllister, representing Hotwells and Harbourside, is supporting the scheme. In a written statement included in the report, he said the new rooftop terrace would be an “attraction and an asset” to the area, with extra customers helping the economy.
He added: “Opening the roof to the public will create new prime views of heritage assets and points of interest, such as the Floating Harbour, the Arnolfini, M Shed, Brandon Hill and Cabot Tower, and indeed Bristol Cathedral. Being able to see these views myself, when I was invited to view the site, made me eager to enable the whole city to benefit from them.”
Initially a transit shed, the V Shed was built over a century ago before getting converted into bars in the 1990s redevelopment of the docks. Along with other historic buildings, the V Shed was kept rather than demolished, as well as the giant cranes in front of the M Shed.
Views of historic buildings are also considered to be important to try and protect from new developments. According to Historic England, a government body, the rooftop terrace would harm some of these important views of the cathedral.
They said: “These views are not incidental, but key and historic visual connections. The position of the view taken from outside the Arnolfini has for many centuries been the line of and the entrance into the historic Narrow Quay. The historic association between this point and the cathedral has been evident for a significant period of time, also well before the creation of the Quay when this was a low lying marsh at the confluence of the Avon and Frome rivers.”
Next Wednesday councillors on the development control committee will hear from both perspectives on the argument, before deciding whether to grant planning permission or not.