Work has finally begun on creating a huge new ‘Sporting Quarter’ in Bristol – with an area around Ashton Gate Stadium seeing a new 5,000 capacity arena and convention centre, hotel, flats, offices and multi-storey car park.
Workers started erecting hoardings around the site on Monday and continued today, Tuesday, to surround the existing buildings there, ahead of their demolition in the coming weeks.
An empty Wickes DIY store, an office building and the former home of Nationwide Platforms – all between Winterstoke Road and Ashton Gate Stadium – are being fenced off in preparation for demolition.
“We are preparing the site for demolition, subject to planning conditions, including erecting some fencing along Winterstoke Road. We will update residents with a timeline for demolition in due course,” said an Ashton Gate spokesperson.
Meanwhile, Esteban Investments – the property and development firm set up by Bristol Sport and stadium owner Steve Lansdown – has applied to city planners to make changes to the original project.
Back in 2023, after years of planning wrangles and delays, the city council finally gave permission to Esteban for the building of a sports and convention centre, a hotel, a block of 125 flats, new offices and shops, a gym, a club museum, a multi-storey car park and new road access in and out of the site, which stretches around the west of the stadium from Ashton Road to Wedlock Way.
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The fresh planning application details changes to the design of the hotel and sports and convention centre, and a change to which parts will be built first.
The new plan would see the hotel and sports and convention centre built first – and not the multi-storey car park, as previously planned – and so there is a new request for some of the site to be a temporary car park ahead of the car park being constructed.
GV of Ashton Gate and the former Wickes store on Winterstoke Road Bristol, Tuesday 31 March 2026, where the Bristol Sporting Quarter will be constructed(Image: PAUL GILLIS / Reach Plc)
The plans for the tower blocks of 125 flats, and the offices – towards the northern side of the site closer to Ashton Road – remain unchanged.
The changes proposed are that the plan for shops, a club museum and a gym to be included on the ground floor of the multi-storey car park building will be dropped altogether, with the hope that they may be included later in a ‘future reorganisation of the southwest corner of the stadium’.
Other changes will see the hotel have slightly smaller rooms, and fewer of them – down from 232 to 216, and that will mean the hotel building will be shorter.
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The design of the sports and convention centre will be changed slightly, with extra VIP areas, and the plan for a pedestrian bridge to link the centre with the stadium, across Colliters Brook and Marina Dolman Way will now not be enclosed, but partially open.
In a report to the council’s planning department, consultants Lichfields said the reason for the tweaks to the plan was because of rising costs in the construction industry.
Final overview of the Ashton Gate Sporting Quarter plans(Image: Ashton Gate Stadium)
“Since Bristol City Council ’s grant of planning permission on 22 August 2023, the Ashton Gate Design Team has completed a commercial design review of the proposals to redevelop the Ashton Gate site,” they said.
“This process has involved updating the detailed costing of the proposals and a further in-depth technical review of structural issues, mechanical and electrical services and the overall construction phasing with contractor input.
“It is well documented that there has been significant uplift in material costs since 2021 (when the application was originally submitted), having a significant effect on scheme viability, resulting in impacts and delays to the delivery of major development schemes in Bristol.
“The design team have therefore been considering how savings could be made without compromising the overall vision or design integrity of the approved scheme. The minor changes therefore focus on limited revision to plots 1, 2 and 3, which provide a more efficient design to ensure scheme viability,” they added.
