An Update from Children’s Scrapstore: Same Building, New Future

We’re excited to share that after moving into this historic St Werburghs building over 20 years ago, we’re proposing changes to our home, Scrapstore House.

Our Current Situation

Children’s Scrapstore moved into its current St Werburghs home over 20 years ago, inhabiting a historic building that has served the area since the 19th century.

Despite significant efforts to maintain the building, it has been more than two decades since any major refurbishment has been undertaken. The wear and tear is becoming increasingly costly for the charity.

The charity is facing escalating maintenance costs, from leaking roofs to windows and vintage lifts, requiring ongoing investments of tens of thousands of pounds each year.

The building’s energy inefficiency also means increased monthly costs to heat in the winter and to keep cool in the summer.

Equally as the charity’s services, facilities and provision has grown, expansion has been constrained by the building’s layout, limiting how effectively the space can be used.

With the charity now owning the building outright, there is a unique opportunity to sell some undeveloped, brownfield land on the site, which will fund essential renovations to create an improved and future-proofed space for members, tenants, staff and the visiting public.

The Opportunity

On either side of the Scrapstore building, we have two areas of land adjacent to the building – our main car park to the East, and an area next to the Ivy Pentecostal Church to the West.  

In partnership with a local architect and design consultant Children’s Scrapstore will submit a planning application to gain permission to build 12 new two-bed townhouses on these undeveloped plots, (six homes per plot).  

The development will not replace the current car parks in their entirety, just part of them.

Once planning permission is granted, the charity will look to sell the two sites to a property developer so the income from the sales can be reinvested in the main building to enable the much-needed renovations and protect the long-term future of the building.

The Renovation

A comprehensive renovation would create a building that is fit for purpose for all users. This includes improving accessibility, enhancing the sustainability of the building, and ensuring it meets the needs of staff, members, tenants and the public.

The renovation will incorporate sustainability features to reduce the building’s environmental footprint and improve its energy efficiency. It would also improve accessibility, ensuring that everyone in the community can easily benefit from what Scrapstore has to offer.

The decision to renovate, rather than move is based on the unique benefits of the current location in St. Werburghs. While being positioned in the heart of a vibrant community, the site offers the practical advantages of a large warehouse with vehicular access and parking for storage and operations, enabling Bristol to house one of the largest Scrapstores in the country.

Equally it offers Children’s Scrapstore’s public-facing spaces, the shop and playroom which are central to the charity’s work and ability to engage with the community directly.

Moving to a new location would mean sacrificing this rare combination of community integration and operational capacity.

By investing in the refurbishment of the existing building, Children’s Scrapstore can preserve and enhance its connection to St Werburghs and the wider city while creating a space that better serves its users now, and in the future.

Any questions?

For more information, please visit our frequently asked questions here.  

We will also be highlighting our plans in our reception area for those wishing to understand more.

The building team will also be hosting a drop-in session on Wednesday 27 November from 2pm to 6pm which is open to anyone to attend who has any questions about the proposals. 

You’re also welcome to email building@childrensscrapstore.co.uk

FAQS

  • No, absolutely not. We are looking to sell some undeveloped land adjacent to either side of the building, with planning consent for new homes. This will fund essential renovations to create an improved and future-proofed space for members, tenants, staff and the visiting public. 

  • While we of course work hard to maintain the building to ensure it is a safe and operational staff for all staff and users, it has been more than two decades since any major refurbishment has taken place. The wear and tear is becoming increasingly costly, and unsustainable for us as a charity. The renovations will create an improved and future-proofed space for members, tenants, staff and the visiting public. 

  • The decision to renovate, rather than move is based on the unique benefits of the current location in St. Werburghs. Our current site has a rare combination of being integrated in a community, while having access to a large warehouse as well as our public-facing spaces, such as the shop and playroom.   

  • We are working with an experienced architect and design consultant as we work on the plans for the renovations - they see no reason at present why we would need to close the building during any works. Obviously, there will be some disruption in parts of the building that need the most refurbishment but at present there is nothing to suggest it should halt operations. 

  • The date of future renovation work is currently unknown as we first need to focus on the planning application for the new homes either side of Children’s Scrapstore. This work will guide us on how much we will have to reinvest in the renovation.  

  • The renovation will incorporate sustainability features to reduce the building’s environmental footprint and improve its energy efficiency. It would also improve accessibility. There are no plans to change any of our existing services and facilities other than improve them for the long-term. 

  • We have modelled various scenarios based on how much we are able to raise through the sale of the land. Once we have a clear indication of the investment pot, we’ll finalise which elements we progress with. 

  • The renovation will incorporate sustainability features to reduce the building’s environmental footprint and improve its energy efficiency. It would also improve accessibility, ensuring that everyone in the community can easily benefit from what Scrapstore has to offer.  

  • We will reserve some of our public car park, in order to allow vehicular access to our warehouse and provide space for our visitors who drive to the site.  

  • Most likely, we will reassess our plans and resubmit. As a charity we are legally bound to achieve the greatest value for any of our assets and we know our best chance of achieving that is by selling the land with planning granted.  

  • Currently, this is unknown, as first we need to obtain planning permission and then we will look to sell the site.

  • As and when the land is sold, we will still retain 65 per cent of our current public car park but we will no longer have use of the land between Children’s Scrapstore and the Pentecostal Church. We will however retain the service yard, currently used by Better Foods. 

  • There won’t be any change to the car parking until the land is sold. Once the land is sold, we will need to reduce the number of spaces in our public car park, but it will remain open. 65 per cent of the spaces will remain and available for visitors to Scrapstore House.  

  • The land that is occasionally used as a car park by visitors to the church will be sold as part of the proposals. We do not expect this to happen imminently, and if long term solutions present themselves, we will of course be happy to work together where possible, for the benefit of the wider community. 

  • While our car park does get busy, this is mainly due to misuse by others who are not visiting Scrapstore House. We will be implementing stricter measures and policing of the car park to ensure the spaces we retain are kept for Scrapstore House visitors. We are retaining 65 per cent of our current car park capacity so we do not foresee this impacting visitors once measures are in place.  

  • This will be retained; we appreciate this is not obvious on the images, but this is simply so that the images display the design of the development. The land on the corner of the roundabout is not owned by us, our boundaries start just behind it which is where the new homes will be built.