Green light for £40m development at dye factory

Plans to build 105 homes at a former laundry and dye works in Bristol have been given the green light.Acorn Property Group, in partnership with Galliard Homes and Folland Ltd, has been granted detailed planning permission by Bristol City Council for the £40m regeneration project at the former Brooks Dye Works in St Werburghs.Formerly a laundry and dye works, the four-acre derelict industrial site will be redeveloped to provide one, two and three-bed apartments, two, three and four-bed houses and 6,000 sq ft of commercial space.Twenty four of the 105 homes will be affordable, a mixture of intermediate rent and shared-ownership.Construction is due to start in the autumn with the first homes delivered in 2019 and completion expected in autumn 2020.Brooks Dye Works was set up by the Brooks family in 1862 and remained a family-run business until the founder’s great-great-grandson Simon Brooks retired in 1997.Originally a business to dye clothes for mourning, it expanded to include cleaning blankets for the American Army and later dry cleaning with around 18 shops in the Bristol area.The factory’s iconic chimney will remain as a centrepiece and reference point to the site’s history and heritage.