Tagged: hen-chickan
Long Bemmie Wander with Lisa
11 Apr 2021
My friend Lisa joined me again, this time for a long wander through "Bemmie". In fact, I tweeted recently using "Bedmo" as my abbreviation for Bedminster, and apparently there's something of a culture war going on. From what I can glean, the longer-term residents call it "Bemmie" and consider "Bedmo" a name made up by hipster gentrifiers.
I had no idea, but then I didn't grow up around here, and I don't live in Bedminster, and I'm not a hipster. I'm not sure I've ever gentrified anywhere, either; Hotwells was already quite gentrified by the time I arrived. I probably just lowered the tone a bit.
Anyway. Lisa and I entered Bemmie by the traditional toll gate (though actually you'd only have paid if you were coming from the Long Ashton direction, not merely nipping across from Hotwells) and then almost literally combed the streets to knock several new roads off my list of targets. Along the way we saw lots of street art, as you'd expect, and admired the area's panoply of gorgeous knockers.
I'm sure I've noticed before that the Hen & Chicken had a roof garden—Lisa says there were tentacles poking out of there a while back, as is often the case in Bristol, oddly—but I very rarely look up at the place. I've been on the first floor for a good few comedy shows, most recently Mitch Benn.
Good grief! Just found a combination photo of two previous versions of the Hen & Chicken building on Pintrest. It really has changed over the years. The original building was lovely. A victim of bomb damage, perhaps....
And, going back further to try to find out, I instead came across a watercolour of the Hen & Chicken from 1900 on Know Your Place... It's clearly the Trigger's broom of pubs, given how much in common the current building has with the original.