Dating from 1869 and faced in dark-red brick, with yellow and black detailing, the Granary towers 100ft above Welsh Back and the Floating Harbour. Like Cardiff, Hull and Chatham, which have all benefited from rejuvenated dock areas, Bristol’s waterside is a magnet for developers. The Granary is built in a Victorian Byzantine style peculiar to Bristol. Although it may not suit some modern tastes, such palazzo-style buildings were originally developed by wealthy merchants competing over who could commission the most extravagant structure.

At the Granary, for example, intricately styled small window apertures are designed in the shape of shields, circles and eyes, and were intended to ventilate the grain that was once spread on every floor; it is topped by Venetian-style battlements.

Chris Smith, of English Heritage, describes the Granary as “dominant, commanding and glorious”, and says: “The thing that concerned us was that this brick facade was not tampered with. The developers have delivered on this.”

The developer in question, Wilson Connolly, and the project’s architect, Barton Willmore (the combination that won the tender for the renovation project from Bristol city council), faced several design headaches in trying to convert the uncompromising industrial style of the Granary, which was originally built by Ponton and Gough, masters of this genre, into modern flats.

“The low ceilings and lack of natural daylight were a challenge,” says John Tranter, an architect on the project. “We also had to leave the polychromatic brickwork and the windows untouched, while following building regulations regarding fire-escape routes and integrating modern services into the structure.”

The renovation has retained features such as huge brick pillars that thrust up through each apartment, gradually thinning to a modest 18in square on the upper levels. The original heavy ironwork still binds the enormous Parana pine beams exposed overhead, and each window now has a reverse casement, which allows the outside appearance to stay unchanged but incorporates artificial lighting on the inside.

Many Bristolians will remember the Granary from its glory days as a jazz venue in the 1960s, with the Avon Cities Jazz Band in residence on Fridays and Acker Bilk playing gigs. In the 1970s, top rock performers such as Status Quo, Thin Lizzy, Yes, Elkie Brooks and the Clash appeared on Thursdays and Saturdays. In the early 1980s, however, the venue ran into financial trouble and closed.

After that, the Granary became something of a headache for the city council. Tranter explains: “It was empty for a long period in the 1980s, and then the property recession hit.” In the late 1990s a chain spent £1.2m on opening a successful restaurant on the ground floor and basement. However, the rest of the building stood empty, and the quest began to find an appropriate use for it.

Jonathan de Mowbray Jeffrey, of the city’s property division, who organised the Granary tender, says: “The developer shaded it by its keenness to liaise with English Heritage, and its plans to use local contractors.”

FPDSavills is selling the Granary apartments, which start at £249,950 and go up to £415,000 for a two-bedroom flat. The duplex apartment on the first and second floors offers the best value, at £249,950, or £253 per square foot, while the one on the seventh and eighth floors is the same price but smaller at £285 per sq ft. The average price of new accommodation in the city centre is £292 per sq ft. Just outside the centre, on Hotwell Road, Wilson Connolly has a two-bedroom apartment in its Leading Edge development for £229,950, or £250 per sq ft.

Wilson Connolly, 0117 922 1842, www.wilcon.co.uk; FPDSavills, 0117 910 0300, www.fpdsavills.co.uk

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