Cabot Circus Location City: Bristol, UK
A key part of Bristol’s city centre regeneration programme
Key Info
- Includes:
- An urban regeneration scheme of 93,000m² of retail space, 25,000m² of offices, 10,000m² leisure facilities, a 4-storey flagship store, 15 major stores, 100 new shops, 260 residential units and 2,500 parking spaces, plus hotel and student accommodation
- Area:
- 11.8 hectare site
- Sustainability:
- BREEAM Excellent
- Status:
- Completed in 2008
- Key award:
- MAPIC Retail Award for Best Shopping Centre of the Year 2008.
Map Location
An award-winning urban regeneration scheme
This multi-award-winning, integrated urban regeneration mixed-use scheme in the heart of Bristol realised the first lightweight grid-shell roof structure in the UK, providing cover to this multi-level naturally-ventilated development.
A BREEAM 1st for the UK
Cabot Circus was the first retail-led development in the UK to achieve the highest BREEAM rating of Excellent. This development is respected internationally, receiving many visits from the development industry worldwide. The scheme has an annual footfall of 18.5 million, and serves a catchment area of 2.4 million. The development has also attracted over £112 million of inward investment to the area, as well as 3,900 full-time jobs.
Regeneration in a heritage-sensitive site
The site's heritage, being a burial ground and a scheduled ancient monument, has been retained, forming the focus for a new public space - Quakers Friars.
Additionally, we created a network of safe, welcoming streets to attract people back into the city centre from out-of-town retail parks, but with reduced traffic impact.
As masterplanners for the whole development, and designers for the retail and leisure elements of Cabot Circus, Chapman Taylor introduced new buildings, open streets and appropriately proportioned squares which sit naturally within the city’s established urban scale.
We worked closely with leading artist Nayan Kulkarni, and consulting engineers Schlaich Bergermann und Partner, to produce one of the scheme's most dramatic elements - a free-form, shell-shaped glass roof, the first of its kind in the UK.