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.
Argentinian artist Caro Pepe's mural is "a one-eyed woman (her trademark) with symbols of the suffragette movement exploding out of her head"
10 Jul 2021
Lisa had a couple of hours to spare before going up in a hot air balloon (exciting!) so we went for a quick local walk, revisiting a bit of Cliftonwood we've seen before, exploring the secret garden I'd visited before that I thought she'd enjoy (I didn't take any new photos there) and then pushing on to another garden, Cherry Garden. Last time we passed this way, I'd noticed the gate, but we hadn't gone in as I'd assumed it was private. I'd since found it on CHIS's list of communal gardens in Clifton, so I wanted to have a look inside this time, and try to figure out whether it was private-communal or public, and possibly Council-owned, like several of the other gardens in Clifton.
I'm not sure it would go well in my living room, but if this lamp takes your fancy, it's in the window of Relics furniture shop on St George's Road.
26 Feb 2022
I needed to buy new walking shoes—my old ones were squeaking and it was driving me up the wall—so I ordered some for collection from Taunton Leisure on East Street in Bedminster, and decided to make picking them up an official wander.
I didn't cover any new ground within my mile, but I did take advantage of the trip to take in a few interesting things just outside my normal radius, mostly New Gaol-related. Along the way there are a couple of sanitation-related diversions, including a visit to a rare manhole cover. You can hardly wait, I can tell!
Hadn't spotted this one before. It's hidden away a little, tucked inside the entrance to the disused public toilets under the ramp for one of the Cumberland Basin flyovers.
You can pretty much take the word "disused" for read when it comes to public toilets in Bristol. Protesters recently wrote an open letter to the council demanding the re-opening of some of the many closed toilets.
The lack of access to public toilets in Bristol is not simply inconvenient – it raises issues of equality, and of dignity. Lack of toilets has led to the use of public spaces as substitute toilets – effectively open sewers in our city
As someone whose main form of exercise is walking through the city, I've definitely noticed the decreasing availability of public loos over the years. I can only imagine that my need for them will increase as the years go by...