The reuse of existing buildings has been a feature of urban renewal in Bristol since the 1960s, enabling the city to grow and develop while retaining its distinctive character. In 1975 the Arnolfini arts centre moved into a converted Grade II listed 19th century tea warehouse, which also houses offices. Subsequently Arnolfini has come to represent Bristol's shift from port city to creative hub, while also setting a trend for imaginative urban renewal that gave us the Tobacco Factory.
Other former warehouses along St Augustine's Reach have been converted for use by the Watershed media centre and the prestigious Bordeaux Quay restaurant and Cookery School.
Bordeaux Quay was designed with sustainability in mind, using or introducing Forestry Stewardship Council certificated timber, rainwater harvesting, recycled construction materials, solar thermal hot water, and heat recovery and recirculation. Diners in the upstairs restaurant may note the wonderful acoustics that give the spacious, post-industrial interior an intimate feel.
Other notable developments reusing former industrial or commercial sites include Paintworks, a mixed-use development designed to be the city's creative quarter, and Lake Shore, the ambitious renovation of the former Imperial Tobacco headquarters in Hartcliffe by urban renewal pioneers Urban Splash. In different ways each project aims to be sustainable, with live-work spaces in the former taking cars off the city's roads while the latter is heated by geothermal energy.
Bristol's environmental hub, the Create Centre, also makes use of an existing structure, one of the tobacco bond warehouses that add such a distinctive quality to the Floating Harbour.
In 1992 the JT Group rescued Leigh Court, a Grade II listed building on the edge of Bristol, from the hands of a receiver. Under the guidance of English Heritage it reroofed the building and developed a second floor of offices inside the existing structure. Leigh Court is now completely restored and is owned by Business West, the former Bristol Chamber of Commerce.