Supporters of a landmark community development in Bristol have celebrated its official launch.

Knightstone Housing opened J3 in the Easton area with Bristol City Council, who unveiled a brand new library on the same site and provided £440,000 towards the scheme.

The occasion was marked with speeches by Nick Medhurst, Chair of Knightstone, and David Orr, the Chief Executive of the National Housing Federation. They were joined by Mark Cotton from the Big Lottery, who funded the library, the Mayor of Bristol George Ferguson and Councillor Simon Cook, the council’s Cabinet Member for Culture, Sport and Capital Programmes.

The 85 guests were offered tours of the development, which will be home to 59 households. J3 has with a mixture of shared ownership and properties to rent, offering affordable housing options for local people.


In the afternoon, the library opened to the public, and Knightstone joined with the Libraries Service to run a host of community activities. These included creative writing workshops, a visit from the Bristol Playbus, live music and circus skills demonstrations. There was a real party atmosphere, as the local community celebrated the brand new facilities.

Mr Medhurst said: "J3 is not only an iconic scheme for Knightstone, it’s also an iconic scheme for Bristol. It makes a significant contribution to meeting housing need in the City and in the immediate community. We're immensely proud to be a part of the partnership that delivered this development. Thanks must not only go to Bristol City Council and our partners, the Homes and Communities Agency, but also to the local residents who have supported this scheme from the start. Without them J3 wouldn’t have been possible."

Mr Orr said: "J3 really is something to show off about and to be proud of. You approach the development and just think ‘wow’. It’s a genuine example of how building homes is a great thing. When we build homes, we create communities and we make better places and that’s exactly what is happening here. Everyone who has been involved in developing J3 should be proud."

The Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) provided support for the project, which included a £2.9m investment to make the development happen.

(CD)