Improvements to Bristol Temple Meads station forecourt have made it easier to use for pedestrians, buses and taxis, without compromising its historical character and context. Designed by Percy Thomas Partnership.
The forecourts of stations serve as the thresholds of our cities. They frame the first impressions of a place for the visitor and help to define our mental maps of the built environment. They are places of intense activity at the interface of streets and the transport network; places of stress, of occasional bewilderment, excitement and emotions associated with greetings and partings. They are points of great commercial and functional pressure, where buses and taxis, traders and advertisers compete for space.
However, most station forecourts are dismal disappointments. Those arriving by train or bus tend to be faced by incoherent, ill-managed spaces filled with uncoordinated clutter. Most are dominated by vehicular movement. The pedestrian tends to be treated as an inconvenience, marginalised to the edges and expected to negotiate a circuitous route amongst the signs, bollards and barriers.
Bristol Temple Meads is one example of a different approach to streetscape design outside a station. Its pivotal position at the heart of the proposed regeneration by the Bristol Urban Development Corporation (BDC) in the early 1990s gave rise to a remodelling of the forecourt. It provides the setting for the historic buildings, including Brunel's original terminus, now the Empire Museum, that line the approach to the Grade 1 listed station. The forecourt has withstood 13 years of intensive activity, coping with around 6.7 million passengers a year and high volumes of buses, taxis and private cars.
