Colston Hall Bristol

Contractors have now completed the demolition of Colston House the office buildings next to the hall to make way for the new £20 million state-of-the-art foyer complex.

The demolition phase of the project took slightly longer than expected due to high levels of asbestos being discovered in the office block. Once this had been carefully removed, a very detailed and essential archeological excavation took place on the historical site.

This part of the process has now been completed successfully enabling the new phase to begin.

Construction of the new building is set to start at the end of July and the new foyer building will be completed early 2009, opening in late spring of that year.

Did you know?

• 8,400 tonnes of rubble have been crushed and recycled - with 3,600 tonnes kept on site to help provide the foundations for the new foyer building. The rest will be reused in other construction projects in Bristol and the region.
• 139 tonnes of metal was cleared from the site, at the junction of Colston Street and Pipe Lane.
• Around 20 tonnes of asbestos were discovered in the former office block during the demolition and had to be carefully removed from the site by specialist sub-contractors.
• Archaeologists from Bristol and Region Archaeological Services spent five weeks excavating beneath the site. They found some ancient walls, believed to be part of the friary church, and removed the remains of more than twenty human burials. Decorative 13th century floor tiles from the friary, including some depicting Richard 1 and Saladin on horseback, were also found.