Baltic Wharf New pics reveal how harbour development will look

NEW images of what a landmark new development on the south side of Bristol’s Floating Harbour will look like once it has been completed have been released, in the week work on the controversial plan finally began.

- Tristan CORK

The transformation of the Baltic Wharf caravan park, which has been a tourist mecca for more than 40 years, began on Monday when workmen began cutting down scores of trees and clearing the site ready for the construction of 166 new flats.

The site, sandwiched between the famous Cottage pub and Bristol Marina, is one of the few remaining spots along the harbourside that has either been redeveloped into modern housing, been repurposed - like M Shed, the Arnolfini or the bars and restaurants of St Augustine’s Reach - or remains a link back to Bristol's history as a port and dockyard, like the marina, or Underfall Yard.

Baltic Wharf’s caravan site was for centuries a timber yard and, as the docks and harbour industry around it was closed down in the 1970s, it was converted into a caravan park in 1978, at around the same time other empty, derelict or decaying sites were turned into car parks, years before the big transformation of the 1980s and 90s saw flats being built from Mardyke Wharf to Bathurst Basin.