Driving along the A38, it’s difficult to see the sheer scale of work taking place on the Filton Airfield. But inside the development, workers are busy diverting an underground stream and recycling materials from the old runway, while the first of several thousand new residents are moving in.
Late last month YTL were given planning permission to more than double the number of homes planned for the former airport. 6,500 houses and apartments will eventually be built alongside new schools, hotels, a train station and a giant new park the same size as Castle Park.
Meanwhile the developers are still designing the arena planned for three enormous hangars, and couldn’t confirm if the opening date was still late 2025 or early 2026. But a formal press announcement is expected to be made “within the next month”, with the latest arena updates. However, the Local Democracy Reporting Service has been given a behind-the-scenes look.
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Seb Loyn, YTL planning and development director, said: “It became the world’s largest aircraft manufacturing site, which is an incredible testament to the engineering innovation and pioneering spirit. It was world-class, with 10 altitude world records on the site, so it’s very rich in aerospace heritage.”
The name of the development, Brabazon, comes from a giant plane manufactured on the site, which the three massive hangars that will become the arena were specially built for in the 1940s. Each hangar is 30 metres tall, and between 80 and 120 metres deep. All 10 of the Concorde planes built in the UK were also made in the hangars, in the late 1960s and early 70s.
“It’s been important for us that we link through with the heritage of Bristol’s thriving aerospace economy and history,” Mr Loyn added. “For example, [some of the roofs] are modelled on the tailfin of a plane, but it’s south-facing with photovoltaics and it creates a double space inside the house.
“We’ve got a massive housing need in the South West, and the truth is they’re either going to be delivered in an urban centre — then you’ve got all this Green Belt where you can’t build — and then outside that is where the housing will go. That means that every single person who wants to live in those houses is going to have to jump in their car to drive into Bristol to work.
“That isn’t the case or the need with Brabazon, which is why it’s important for us and the health and the wellbeing for many people who, rather than sitting in a car for 45 minutes doing nothing, can jump on a train and get into central Bristol and back — or better still work in aerospace or one of the new offices we’re delivering.”
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Leading the delivery of the new 19,000-capacity arena is Andrew Billingham, CEO of YTL Arena LTD. He previously worked for Bristol Sport and oversaw the rebuild of Ashton Gate between 2014 and 2016.
He said: “We’re the team behind the design and build, and we’ll ultimately operate the whole venue going forward, so from start to finish. It’s one arena complex, but it’s three spaces. And this is what makes it very unique.”
The hangars on either side of the main middle one will be used as a conference centre and an exhibition centre. But they’ll also be able to support giant events like the Brit Awards or party political conferences.
“We want to be pitching for those events to come to Bristol,” Mr Billingham said. “They need an after-show party space and pre-show space, which we’ll be able to provide. This will be the premier venue for the South West, and the fourth largest arena in the UK. That means we’re absolutely on the touring schedule of all the big acts.
“We’re in our final design stages now. The arena will provide 180 live event shows per year, dominated by music. This is a venue that’s been built for music first — a lot of arenas are built for music second — with the best acoustics that we can put into the building, the best artist and production facilities, and the biggest service yard in the back.
“We’ll have a community stage in the main bar for local artists to come and play local shows before the main act. And we’ve got a green room which we can hand over as a recording studio for the local community to come and use.”
The arena will also be able to host sport events, such as tennis or athletics. The majority of food and drink served will be from the region, with a “Gloucester Road feel”, and the latest technology such as self-pour beer walls.
An ongoing concern about the arena plans is its location on the very edge of Bristol. The 75 bus from Bedminster, for example, took just over an hour to reach the top of Gloucester Road near to the airfield. But a new train station is planned to open in 2026, while a Metrobus route will run through the site. So far only two trains an hour are timetabled, but these will become “a lot more frequent” before and after concerts, however details are still to be decided.
Crucially, the housing development will be phased, relying on upgrades to public transport happening before proceeding to building the next phase of new homes. Traffic counters will be laid on each of the five junctions leading into the site, and if too many car journeys are counted then the housing construction will be paused.
“It’s pretty unusual for any developer to do this,” Mr Loyn said. “This is a very long-term project, which means we don’t have all the answers now, we don’t know how mass transit might develop. Our commitment is to say if at any point there are a certain number of homes to be delivered, we can’t exceed a certain car-trip ratio coming out of the site. We’ll monitor that.
“It’s not obvious to everybody just how much work we’ve been getting on with. It’s probably about 80 acres of infrastructure that we’re putting in at the moment. We’re diverting a stream that runs under the site, and we’re putting in a new A38 junction.”
Mr Billingham added: “I think the general public feels that this is just an arena build, but it isn’t. This is a huge infrastructure project before it even becomes an arena build. It’s not very exciting to talk to people about roads and cables and sewerage going in, but ultimately those hangars were to build aircraft, not to take 19,000 people, so that infrastructure is really, really important.”
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