Bristol Temple Meads Station

 

Bristol Temple Meads Station

Our urbanism, engineering and conservation teams have been advising Network Rail on the future of the Grade I listed Bristol Temple Meads station for nearly a decade.

We have often worked as part of several projects implementing strands of a masterplan to develop for the station and surrounding Temple Quarter Enterprise Zone. Our work has involved alterations to the northern and southern entrances, improved station retail and the repair of Brunel’s innovative and remarkable Passenger Shed roof of 1841 – the world’s first large span trainshed.

As anyone who has travelled by train to Bristol will know, despite the quality of its architecture and its exceptional historical significance, Temple Meads is awkwardly located and frustrating to use. Now the station is on the cusp of momentous changes, spurred by the development of the surrounding Temple Quarter Enterprise Zone - one of the biggest regeneration projects in the UK.

We first prepared and then revised a comprehensive Conservation Strategy which establishes principles to guide future decision making in order to balance the conservation of what is architecturally important about the site with the need for change and enhancement. This is especially important at Temple Meads, which is of international significance as the first fully-formed major station in the world. This Strategy fed into the masterplan of the station and the Temple Quarter, a joint project with Bristol City Council and the West of England Combined Authority led by Mott MacDonald and Weston Williamson.

Client: Network Rail, Bristol City Council, West of England Combined Authority