Feedback on green spaces from autumn 2024 engagement:
How important is it to you that we keep Ashton Meadows free from new buildings?
How important is it to you that we create landscape better connected to both the river & the harbour, taking advantage of the views?
View of Ashton Meadows - click to enlarge
Proposed heritage district, river walk, sports trail and flood defence walk - click to enlarge
Heritage district
An area spreading west from Underfall Yard past the newly listed electricity substation, A Bond and B Bond (with publicly accessible archive and museum storage) and in an arc around the west side of Spike Island to the historic Brunel bridges and locks. The area is linked back to M-Shed by a new railway station serving the historic train.
Heritage railway, Bristol (Image: © Geof Sheppard) - click to enlarge
Leisure trail
A leisure route picking up the existing skate park and pump track across a new footbridge over the Avon, with new exercise spaces under the flyover, improved watersports in the lock and then on to more amenities under the flyovers at Cumberland Piazza.
Precedent - Underpass Park, Toronto (Image: © Nicola Betts) - click to enlarge
Flood defence walk
A new waterside park above and around flood defences, including lookout points along the river with a new large public square between A Bond and the Ashton Avenue Bridge that’s designed to fill during a rare major flood but whose lower levels allow you to engage with the river at other times.
Precedent - Highline New York - click to enlarge
Other waterside routes
Landscaped walking, hiking and cycling routes along the water edges, culminating in the new public rooftop viewing area looking up the gorge and over a new riverwalk down New Cut.
Avon Gorge, Bristol (Image: © Bristol Design, BCC) - click to enlarge
Precedent - Walkable raised flood defences, Lyme Regis Cobb - click to enlarge
Precedent - Waterfront, Oslo - click to enlarge
Precedent - Hornsbergs Strandpark, Stockholm - click to enlarge