Developed by Umberslade in a joint venture with Muse Developments, enabling works got underway earlier this year thanks to £12m from the Get Britain Building programme.

The £42m first phase will retain and restore several key listed buildings and the old jail gates to enhance the City Docks conservation area and create new public spaces and routes to the waterfront.

Once the full project is complete, Wapping Wharf will be transformed into a community of up to 625 apartments, a 150-bed boutique hotel and 250,000 sq ft of retail and office space.

The development first stalled when loan finance dried up during the banking crisis.

Stuart Hatton, director of Wapping Wharf (Umberslade), said: “Wapping Wharf is the last key regeneration site on the Harbourside and the start of construction work is a move in the right direction for the Bristol economy.

“With other speculative projects such as 66 Queen Square, 2 Glass Wharf and the final phase of Crest Nicholson’s Harbourside development getting off the ground, it signals the resurgence of the Bristol property market and increasing levels of confidence in the industry.”

Other partners involved in the project include Sovereign Housing Group and Knightstone Housing Association, which will manage 81 of the rented apartments once built.