Free Tank

Almost lost within the shiny office park of Bristol’s Temple Quay is a modest space that quietly speaks of a different past. In collaboration with the artist, Roger Hiorns we have re-imagined the place which for centuries was given over to the people of Bristol to draw water from the river: the Free Tank.

The project started as an art commission, part of the developer’s contribution to the greater public good. After boom then bust, it was delivered by the liquidators, so we worked between them, the city council, the artist, and specialist contractors. We oversaw the fabrication of two sculpted chimneys in polished black granite, and provided a setting for them, binding new concrete walls and floor into the historic quayside stones. Inaugurated by the artist with fires within the chimneys, it is a provocative reflection on public space and the privatised city.