With spanking new gates and smashing new ships, Bristol’s working Harbourside is well and truly thriving again. Juliette Phillips investigates
Ask Rob Salvidge of the Bristol Ferry Boat Company to summarise his passion for Bristol’s Harbourside and you’re immediately swept away on a wave of evocative exploration. “It’s a gateway to a world of wonder and adventure,” he says. “A fantastic, historic playground that represents the spirit on which Bristol was built.”
Today, Rob has even more reason to celebrate the unique location that he has every right to call home. As we reported in the first issue of Shipshape, a massive technological improvement scheme in the shape of a four-year, £11m Bristol City Council/BAM Nuttall project is well under way, with the first phase – the urgent task of improving and repairing the dock’s Victorian lock system – already successfully completed. “All those who rely on the harbour need confidence in the technology that goes on behind the scenes,” Rob explains. “Although the new gates don’t look that different to the ones they’ve replaced, the originals really were on their last legs. I was always worried that one day they’d stick open or shut, which would have been disastrous.”
While Rob need worry no more, the hard work doesn’t end here. The ongoing regeneration project will continue into 2011, while over at the historic Underfall Boat Yard, shipwrights are busy working on four brand new wooden boats that are all set to make a splash sometime soon.
“We’re currently concentrating on a new 50ft working replica of a Bristol Channel Pilot Cutter, which the client aims to charter out of Bristol later this year,” says Underfall’s Alf Perry. “We’re also working on a very pretty 1950s-style river launch for a private owner and a six-oared Cornish gig for the newly formed Clevedon club.” Business, it seems, is booming again – and things can only get better.
“Thanks to this scheme, the essence of the dock – and, therefore, Bristol itself – will be retained, with all credit going to the powers that be for having the foresight to support such an investment,” says Salvidge. “I was born and brought up around the Harbourside but, for many people who grew up during the 60s and 70s, it represented a dwindling, declining place,” he recalls. “I was pessimistic about ever seeing it become vibrant again. But the working harbourside is being regenerated; we can once again celebrate, appreciate and fully utilise the navigable water that flows right into the heart of the city – the awesome, unstoppable spirit on which Bristol continues to build.”