page_title: Castle Park, Bristol
section_title: Replanning
hierarchical_section_title: Castle Park, Bristol / History / Replanning
caption_attribution_description: English: Castle Green and Broadmead redevelopment Looking from Bristol Bridge across the river towards Castle Green and the 'shell' of St Peter's church. In the centre background is part of the Bristol Alliance redevelopment of Broadmead. This structure is planned to be luxury apartments with a shopping area (including a Harvey Nichols store) at the base. The tall concrete building on the right is Castlemeads.
context_page_description: Castle Park is a public open space in Bristol, England, managed by Bristol City Council. It is bounded by the Floating Harbour and Castle Street to the south, Lower Castle Street to the east, and Broad Weir, Newgate and Wine Street to the north. Its western boundary is less obviously defined and has been the subject of controversy, perhaps because the area around High Street and St Mary le Port Church, though not part of the park and always intended for development, is often considered at the same time as the park.
  Opened on 30 September 1978, the park occupies the site of what was once Bristol's main shopping district. The area was largely destroyed by the Luftwaffe during the Blitz, and that which remained was subsequently demolished. In the years since the end of the Second World War, Castle Park has become home to a number of anti-fascist memorials.
  The ruined tower of St Mary-le-Port Church stands to the west of the park, surrounded by derelict financial office buildings. Adjoining the ruins of St Peter's Church in the middle of the park is a sensory herb garden, and five silver birch trees as a memorial to the beaches of the D-Day landings.
context_section_description: The idea that Bristol's main shopping area should be moved away from the Castle Street and Wine Street area was first proposed to Bristol Corporation's Planning and Reconstruction Committee by the Multiple Traders' Federation (MTF), representing the larger retailers and chain-stores, in October 1943. They suggested that the pre-war shopping area should be set aside as a civic area with perhaps a concert hall or similar building and an open space, and that the central shopping area should be moved to a less-constrained site. This suggestion formed part of the City Engineer's Master Plan of February 1944, which envisaged that the area would contain a limited number of buildings such as a conference hall, with underground parking for 2,000 cars. The removal of the shopping area was considered desirable because the fire that had destroyed so much of the area was in large part sustained by its congested nature, and in any case many of the chain-stores represented by the MTF wanted larger sites.
  The main objection to this plan came from the independent traders who did not wish to relocate because they felt that the proposed new shopping area was 'off the beaten track'. This objection was not unreasonable, as in its pre-war topography Bristol had a long shopping axis that started at Stapleton Road to the east, passed through Old Market into Castle Street, Wine Street, and the City Markets, and then via The Centre and Park Street to Queens Road and Whiteladies Road. Moving the central shopping area would break this axis. There was also concern about the serious negative social and economic impacts of 'sterilising' such a large area in the centre of the city. However, when the Bristol Retail Traders Federation, representing the small traders, produced a poll showing that 13,000 people wished to retain the shopping centre on its current site whereas only 400 preferred to see it moved, the local Labour party dismissed the poll describing it as 'undemocratic' and comparing the Federation's methods to those of Hitler.
  By 1966, the shops had been rebuilt in 'barren' Broadmead (at the expense of demolishing an area of Victorian, Georgian and Tudor buildings that had escaped the wartime bombing more or less unscathed), and the Wine Street and Castle Street area was being used for car parking. The picturesque area around Narrow Wine Street and Castle Mill Street had been demolished to create modern Newgate, and Old Market, severed from Bristol's shopping axis by the new Temple Way Underpass and the destruction of Castle Street, was in serious decline. The plan for Castle Park was crystallising, however. The ruined St Peter's Church would be surrounded by a museum and an art gallery; to the east of this there would be an arts centre and the remaining area east to Lower Castle Street would be a park. The south-western corner nearest Bristol Bridge would contain a riverside hotel, and the north-western corner would be home to 'a block for cultural, professional and exhibition purposes'.
  In the event, the north-western corner was leased to the Bank of England and Norwich Union Insurance (whose offices now stand derelict), and the critical corner site where the Dutch House had stood was replaced by a link road to a short section of dual-carriageway linking High Street with Wine Street. Plans for a civic centre were dropped as being too expensive.
  Finally, in 1977, work began on an emasculated version of the new park. This was designed by Bristol City Council's parks department and, largely for financial reasons, it contained few of the features intended by earlier plans but was much larger than that originally planned.  The last remaining vestiges of the mediaeval street plan, Dolphin Street and Peter Street, were buried.
caption: Redevelopment around Castle Green and Broadmead, viewed from the River Avon
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