17 Oct 2021
For the first time in a while, I had the time and energy to go further afield and knock off some new roads from my "to do" list. I headed through the first Hotwells Festival to Ashton and Bedminster to cross off a few of the suburban roads south of North Street.
First, though, I decided to try to reproduce an old photo of the now-demolished Rownham Hotel just around the corner from where I live...
I've taken a few photos of the similar place around the corner, but I hadn't noticed there's another one of these odd mansion-mansard-bungalow-what-the-hell places here, too.
The rest of the road is just your normal-for-round-here brick boxes, really. At the end is the back of the little Winterstoke Road retail park, including PC World and Halfords, which I think are the only two shops I've ever been in there.
ODE says a "bower" is "a pleasant shady place under trees or climbing plants in a garden or wood." This road (in the Ashton district) is actually pointing in the direction of the UWE campus at Bower Ashton—I wonder if it was named because it led towards that bower?
And I was right, the alleyway didn't really lead anywhere apart from people's garages and back gates, but at least 99 Smyth Road had a nice decorative number on the garage to look at.