First Base submits plans for £175m job in Bristol

Developer First Base has submitted plans for a £175m mixed-use proposal to Bristol city council for a site on the edge of the city centre.

The Soapworks district will centre around the grade II-listed Victorian former base of soap and candle firm Christopher Thomas & Brothers, which has more recently served as homeware showroom for city department store Gardiner Haskins.

Architect Woods Bagot was appointed last summer after First Base bought the site early last year with a view to creating a scheme featuring modern workspace, new homes, an apartment hotel, cafés and restaurants – in conjunction with the council.

The Soapworks site brings together 15,300sq m of existing buildings on a site between the Temple Quay business district and the Old Market. The Straight Street site is also close to Bristol Temple Meads Station.

First Base said it was looking to “sensitively restore” the Soapworks building and complement it with new structures that would “positively contribute to its surroundings”.

Historic England’s listing for the Soapworks describes it as having been designed by WB Gingell and completed in 1865.

Soapworks will be First Base’s first project in the South-West having tended to concentrate on schemes in London and the South-East.