Why bother?Like many people who love Bristol, we have watched as bits of the city have been sold off to the highest bidder, more often than not with little consultation, let alone involvement or support of the local community.
We think A Bond is too important and valuable to let that happen, so we have asked Bristol City Council if we can offer them some ideas. No promises have been made, but they are listening, and have agreed to consider our proposals in due course. We are starting from the perspective that whatever happens, it should be more of what the local community want, rather than just what will make a profit. It is a huge building, with lots of opportunity but also a fair few difficulties. We would need a lot of support, but the prize at the end could be a huge boost for the area; a live-work community asset that exemplifies the entrepreneurial spirit of Bristol. So if you are someone who cares about what might happen to it, please tell us why, what your ideas are, and how you might be able to help. |
About A Bond
A Bond is a former tobacco warehouse, situated between the floating harbour and the Avon New Cut. Grade 2 listed, it is one of three built at the turn of the 20th century to store tobacco. Now owned by Bristol City Council, it is used for miscellaneous storage.
This bonded tobacco warehouse was designed by the Docks Committee engineer and built by William Cowlin and Sons in 1905. The 'A' Bond was the first of the 3 similar brick warehouses to be built in the Cumberland Basin. They give a good idea of what a large and busy port Bristol was at the time. Bristol was one of the ports involved in the transatlantic slave trade and had warehouses and factories for tobacco and sugar, both products of the trade.
Specification:
Patent red bricks, blue engineering bricks, Pennant stone steps, terracotta details and Welsh slate roof; 'A' Bond has a frame of steel stanchions on the lower 2 floors and iron on the rest, carrying RSJs to segmental-arched concrete floor slabs.
Open plan, in 2 equal parts separated by central spine wall. 9 storeys; 18-window range. Ground floor in black brick with a low plinth, the remainder in red, with strings at 3, 5, 7 and 9 storeys, cornice, of black moulded brick, and stone parapet. Wide clasping pilasters, to a parapet with sunken panels; rear elevation has a central bay between the pilasters.
Ground-floor front has round-arched doorways and windows: from the outside, one door, 2 windows and 2 doors, either side of a central door and flanking windows in the central projecting block, with Pennant stone steps up; the paired flanking doorways are shaded by a cantilevered steel canopy and have sliding steel doors. Upper-floor windows are almost square with terracotta cills and pronounced, chamfered keys and chamfered, stopped jambs, 1:2:1 in central bay and equally spaced either side between the unpierced pilasters. Top floor is roof-lit only.
INTERIOR: central entrance lobby to lateral staircase, giving each side on to a 10x8 bay floor with central lift shaft. Columns decrease in size to upper floors, carrying deep primary and secondary beams, with haunched connections; some floors with wood block flooring. Steel truss north light roofs.
This bonded tobacco warehouse was designed by the Docks Committee engineer and built by William Cowlin and Sons in 1905. The 'A' Bond was the first of the 3 similar brick warehouses to be built in the Cumberland Basin. They give a good idea of what a large and busy port Bristol was at the time. Bristol was one of the ports involved in the transatlantic slave trade and had warehouses and factories for tobacco and sugar, both products of the trade.
Specification:
Patent red bricks, blue engineering bricks, Pennant stone steps, terracotta details and Welsh slate roof; 'A' Bond has a frame of steel stanchions on the lower 2 floors and iron on the rest, carrying RSJs to segmental-arched concrete floor slabs.
Open plan, in 2 equal parts separated by central spine wall. 9 storeys; 18-window range. Ground floor in black brick with a low plinth, the remainder in red, with strings at 3, 5, 7 and 9 storeys, cornice, of black moulded brick, and stone parapet. Wide clasping pilasters, to a parapet with sunken panels; rear elevation has a central bay between the pilasters.
Ground-floor front has round-arched doorways and windows: from the outside, one door, 2 windows and 2 doors, either side of a central door and flanking windows in the central projecting block, with Pennant stone steps up; the paired flanking doorways are shaded by a cantilevered steel canopy and have sliding steel doors. Upper-floor windows are almost square with terracotta cills and pronounced, chamfered keys and chamfered, stopped jambs, 1:2:1 in central bay and equally spaced either side between the unpierced pilasters. Top floor is roof-lit only.
INTERIOR: central entrance lobby to lateral staircase, giving each side on to a 10x8 bay floor with central lift shaft. Columns decrease in size to upper floors, carrying deep primary and secondary beams, with haunched connections; some floors with wood block flooring. Steel truss north light roofs.