Tagged: architecture
Clifton Hill
23 Nov 2020
I've just got to the bit in Fanny Burney's Evelina where our eponymous heroine visit a grand house on Clifton Hill during her stay in Hotwells. It was interesting to wonder if it could be any of the places I passed in my lunchtime jaunt, which took in both Clifton Hill and Lower Clifton Hill.
From Evelina (1778):
"Yes, Ma'am; his Lordship is coming with her. I have had certain information. They are to be at the Honourable Mrs. Beaumont's. She is a relation of my Lord's, and has a very fine house upon Clifton Hill."
The buildings are rather more modern on Regent Street. This terrace doesn't even warrant a listing, it seems; it's only the older ones on the other side, like Boyce's Buildings that make the historic list.
Gardens and Cottages
17 Dec 2020
I think the cute little Duncan Cottage was my favourite bit of this wander up the hill to get coffee and a pain-au-raisin from Twelve, though I did enjoy gently musing on the public and private gardens of Clifton, inspired by a closer pass than usual to Royal York Crescent's garden.
I managed absent-mindedly to clear my GPS track before saving it, so this hand-created track-log may cause me problems in the future. I suppose we'll see.
Ususally the cobweb-patterened ones seem to be proper fan-shaped fanlights in Clfiton, so this rectangle caught my eye.
To Bedminster
19 Dec 2020
Despite a mild headache, I enjoyed this wander over to Bedminster. The light was lovely, especially toward the end. I always enjoy the view down the streets south of North Street at this time of day/year, with the distant hills backdropping the Victorian terraces.
Sunday Bedmo
20 Dec 2020
A long meander around bits of Bedminster, from the river to the north to Winterstoke Road to the south, taking a few roads I've seen before, and a few I haven't. The Christmas decorations were an extra bonus.
I'd love to see this in action. I'm guessing it pivots around the top centre, but I imagine that the circular bit also does something quite cool.
EDIT: I went back and had another look a few months later and tracked down a newspaper article with some video of the gate being opened while it was under construction.
The original artist is John Tenniel (whose name I can never remember.) It was Stewy and homeowner Alison Larkman who did the work of putting it on the wall here, though.
This is the second house called DUNDRY VIEW I've found on my wanders. The first is on Cornwallis Avenue, much nearer to me.
Part of BS3, the Southville Community Centre. Formerly Ashton Park Lower School, built c1895, according to the listing.
On Christmas Day in the Morning
25 Dec 2020
A Christmas Day walk with my friends Sarah and Vik, taking in the shipwrecked Shadow and a hilly chunk of Leigh Woods.
I went to have a peep at the giant sinkhole that's opened up in Canynge Square—ironically, having recently discovered the gardens were public I'd had the (triangular!) square on my list to re-visit for a few days, but now there's no entrance to the gardens due to the danger. The area was well fenced-off for safety, but I tried to get a couple of photos from behind the barriers.
I also explored the area around Camp Road, an real melange of architectures, one of the most mixed-up areas I've seen in Clifton, in fact, and confirmed my friend Claire's suspicion that an earlier snap of a sign from Manilla Road was in fact for a fire hydrant. Nice.
A Promenade on New Year's Day
01 Jan 2021
I wandered along the gorge today and found the entrance to the disused Portnalls Number 1 railway tunnel of the Bristol Port Railway and Pier. The door was unlocked, but as soon as I opened it I felt a sense of current habitation and decided discretion was the best option. There's a lot of people homeless in Bristol at the moment, and they don't need disturbing. For the same reason, I've omitted posting some pictures of a little encampment somewhat off the beaten track of the new Zig Zag, where I reversed direction as soon as I realised I'd come across a current habitation of some sort.
Up in Clifton it took me a little while to work out that the picture of the Promenade I was trying to reproduce was taken from the viewpoint I'd thought, it was just that the Alderman's fountain was moved from the top of Bridge Valley Road to the other side of the promenade in 1987, so trying to use it as my initial landmark wasn't very helpful!
Finally I swung past the Society of Merchant Venturers, who presumably still own most of Clifton, having bought the entire manor, including Clifton Down, in 1676, and I imagine aren't in much danger of running out of money. That's true to their motto: indocilis pauperiem pati is apparently from the Odes of Horace, and translates as "will not learn to endure poverty"...
Engineer's House, built for Charles Pinney, who became mayor of Bristol. "t is now used as offices, a training centre and a conference venue." I love the little sentry box.
Apparently it was previously known as Camp House. I'd guess that may relate to the Iron Age camp on Observatory Hill.
Tiny Houses, Crocodiles and Views
05 Jan 2021
I didn't really intend to record my walk today, but once I was out and about I couldn't really resist taking some pictures. The sun was lovely, but it was cold...
I wanted to catch the jogger in the blast of reflected sunshine, and apparently I succeeded.
A Little Local Wander
07 Jan 2021
Which included a literal "local", the Pump House, to try out their shop/deli/cafe. A flat white, some apples and a New York Deli toastie. Eleven quid, mind, but the Pump House was never a cheap pub...
I enjoyed the fog, and wandering down a few more out-of-the-way back alleys and what-have-you on the Hotwell Road.
I'm thinking of getting up early and going for a morning walk tomorrow, weather-depending, but at the moment my motivation to do things like this seems to be much strong in the evenings when I'm just thinking about it rather than in the morning when I actually have to do it. But it's going to be cold, and low tide is quite early, so there's always a chance of getting some footage of the hot well actually being visibly hot; you never know...
It's a private estate, but I figured nobody would object too much if I wandered straight through. I don't push my way into private areas too much on these walks—my intention in the first place was to only walk down public roads—but sometimes my curiosity about a place I've walked past for decades but never set foot on gets the better of me.
It helps, I'm sure, that I'm white, approaching middle age and have a vaguely RP accent. Plus I do my best to look as un-furtive as possible and only wander through private areas in broad daylight and carrying a big obvious camera, which might be helping rather than hindering. In all the years I've been walking around places and poking my nose in I've never been asked to leave anywhere, anyway, so I've been taking that as a sign that my hopefully-repectful approach is working.
I didn't realise this was just a car park and an entrance to a couple of the flats. I exited quite quickly once I'd worked that out. I did spot a gate that looked like it might lead through to the rest of the estate, but I didn't try it.
The alleyway behind Brandon Tools leads to their shop yard. I think I may have been out there once, when I hired a pressure washer, but I'd forgotten it was there.
Mirror Maze
10 Jan 2021
Went for a wander with my friend Lisa—the current lockdown rules seem to be that one local walk for exercise per day with a maximum of one person not in one's "bubble" is fine—up to the University of Bristol area right at the edge of my one-mile perimeter to see the Jeppe Hein Mirror Maze, among other things. On the way we mused about Merchant Venturers, the slave and tobacco trades, and dating in the time of Covid.
University of Bristol motto: "[Learning] promotes one's innate power". This is from Horace's Odes.
Interesting coincidence (if indeed it is coincidence): the Merchant Venturers' motto, "ndocilis pauperiem pati"—"will not learn to endure poverty"—is also from the Odes. The University of Bristol traces its roots back to the Merchant Venturers' Technical College, founded ca. 1595.
You'd be forgiven for thinking this was a Banksy if you were to Google it, but everyone in Bristol knows that as soon as someone so much as lifts a can to a wall it seems to generate endless bollocks "news" articles like IS THIS A NEW BANKSY!?!!??!?!? and the answer usually follows Betteridge's law. This one's by JPS.
Having just re-watched the whole of Jonathan Creek, I'd be very much in the mood for this if we weren't in a nationwide lockdown.
