Tagged: fence
Bedminster, Ashton, Ashton Court sunset walk
12 Dec 2020
A walk with Sarah focusing on Ashton and the surrounds, taken on a day with really nice light around sunset. Just what I needed.
Rainy Clifton
13 Dec 2020
A long walk around Cliftonwood and Clifton with my friend Lisa, taking in some of the 12 Days of Christmas display at Queens Parade, picking up a take-away coffee from Pinkmans of Park Street, and poking our heads up against the glass of SS Peter and Paul Catholic Cathedral.
No idea of the history of this apparently- disused arched gate between the Cathedral grounds and what looks to be simply someone's back garden.
Last time I visited (the triangular!) Canynge Square, I didn't venture up this corner as there was a bin lorry doing its job and I didn't want to get in the way. Today Lisa and I walked out to the very end, which pokes out onto a view of Percival Road.
Cliftonwood and Clifton Village Lunchtime Stroll
14 Dec 2020
The lunchtime walk has been feeling a bit of a chore lately, especially as I only have an hour and have to keep a mental watch out for my "bingo" point or risk being late back. Today I went for a deliberately brief local walk and got home in time to have lunch on my sofa rather than while I was back at work.
It's interesting filling in the gaps in my Clifton Village knowledge, especially starting to "see" the bits I can't see, the negative spaces. The size of both Fosseway Court and the Bishop's House gardens (check out the latter on Google Maps for an idea) are both something I've noticed by just getting to know the areas around them. I may also have to walk into the driveway of the very well-hidden Nuffield hospital to get an idea of how big it is.
None of those are anything compared to the trick of hiding the gargantuan public school that is Queen Elizabeth's Hospital so well that I keep on forgetting it's there, until a glimpse of it from somewhere like Lower Clifton Hill reminds me about it, of course...
I think when I first arrived in Hotwells, it was sort-of-officially St Andrew's Churchyard Walk, or Lime Walk (those are pleached lime trees), but Birdcage Walk, which I think was more of a nickname, is what shows up on Google maps now. Given that St Andrews itself was destroyed by the Luftwaffe in 1940, I suppose there's less of a landmark to hang the name on these days.
Edit to add: I eventually discovered that the original Bird Cage Walk was the path across Victoria Square, adjacent, and what it used to look like, which makes the name make a lot more sense. I think it's only reasonable that the name migrated as Lime Walk looked more like a birdcage, and the Victoria Square path less like one.
Drained Basin
15 Dec 2020
On the down side, I got to Bedminster and found long enough queues at both Mark's Bread and Hopper Coffee that I gave up on the idea of buying a drink and a pasty (from the former) or a mince pie flapjack (from the latter.) On the up side, I got to take some pictures of Cumberland Basin being drained and sluiced out, part of its regular maintenance cycle.
Just looking at this scares me a little. In an episode of Columbo featuring a flying instructor (I think), someone asks the scruffy detective if he's scared of heights. "I don't even like being this tall," he replies, and I can sympathise.
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.
I imagine you have to live in the street to subscribe. But this got me looking up public and private gardens in Clifton and i came across CHIS's fascinating page listing many (all?) of them. I'm surprised that the garden in the very exclusive-feeling Canynge Square is actually public and maintained by the council plus a residents' garden committee. It felt very private when I was there at the weekend. I may have to go and site and read a book there just for the sake of it, one day.
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.
Of course, what this means is that at some time in the past someone tried to cut a child in half by slamming the gate while a group was going through it...
Sadly, I couldn't walk down Gibbs Way, as it's basically just the back alley for some houses. Not sure how it's even got a name, really.
The only thing I can find out about this alleyway is that someone once discovered a bag with two giant machetes in it here. Odd.
Solstice Rain
21 Dec 2020
Despite the weather, Sarah and Vik and I wandered around Ashton Court a bit as the sun rose. Not that you could really tell. Sadly, the bit we wanted to watch the sunrise from was closed, because people hadn't been treating the deer with appropriate respect. Ah well, at least it was some exercise.
As you do. One of the fibreglass gorillas from the "Wow! Gorillas" public art project organised by Bristol Zoo in 2011. We had one in the lobby when I worked at Axa -- some were bought by corporations and displayed publically; not sure what the story behind this one being on a balcony in Clifton is.
This one is the "I Spy" Gorilla, originally sited at Slimbridge Wetlands and Wildfowl Trust, which presumably explains the decoration, created by artist Dave Bain.
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.
This anonymous little gate is, surprisingly, a rear entrance to the extensive and well-concealed gardens around the back and side of Dorset House, the Royal Marines Reserves building in Clifton. The front's a lot more obvious, as is the grand Clifton mansion that takes up the bulk of the site, but the more utilitarian building at the back of this photo is barely visible from the front road unless you walk right up to the perimeter.
Who knows what they do there? Elite fighting forces tend to be a bit secretive by nature.
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"...
