PLANS for a café at a toilet block on the Downs have taken a major step forward.
Bristol City Council has received an application for planning permission to convert the block on Circular Road by the Sea Walls, with two toilets left open for the public.
The Downs committee is hoping that a café operator would help pay to maintain the building once refurbishment is carried out.
Four years ago councillors voted to approve permission for a similar but larger proposal. This would have seen the block demolished and replaced with a café and new public toilets. However the Downs Act, a Victorian law protecting the parkland, prevented the scheme from going ahead.
In planning documents, architects said: “The proposals seek to bring a deteriorating building back into active public use through the sensitive reuse of the existing structure. The site occupies a prominent position overlooking the Avon Gorge and forms part of the wider Downs landscape. The building is currently in use but is in very poor condition.
“The site benefits from high levels of pedestrian activity, particularly during weekends and seasonal periods, making it an appropriate location for a small-scale café use serving visitors to the Downs. The existing public facilities use of the building is important and will be retained.”
Another planning application was approved in 2019 for a café and public toilet building. But this faced delays due to the pandemic and obstacles from the Downs Act. Crucially, both previous applications would have extended the footprint of the building, but this latest one would not. However the building would be revamped and substantially tidied up.
A new south-facing window is proposed for the café, providing views across the Downs. A new replacement roof would also be put on the building too, but the existing stone walls would be kept. The café would open from 8am to 5pm, in winter and the rest of the year from 8am to 8pm.
The latest plan has already met objections from people concerned at the reduction in public toilet provision from male and female toilets pluys urinals to just two toilets.
The Downs are jointly owned by Bristol City Council and the Society of Merchant Venturers, and are overseen by the Downs committee — made up of seven councillors and seven members of the business group. Back in 2023, the committee heard how plans for a larger café would need special permission from parliament. This would have cost a lot of money and would need to be debated by both the House of Commons and House of Lords. So the committee scrapped that plan, and came up with the current design for converting and refurbishing the existing building instead.
The toilet block dates back to the Second World War, when the Downs was used by the military with temporary buildings put up, including a latrine by the Sea Walls and a tank repair depot.
Public toilets across Bristol were closed by the council in 2018 and this block was handed over to the Downs committee.
By Alex Seabrook, Local
Democracy Reporter