06 Dec 2020
I wasn't really feeling it when I set out today, on my first car-assisted wander. By the time I'd parked on Alma Vale Road in Clifton it was just starting to rain and I picked my way about in quite a desultory way. It felt strange, as I was very familiar with the area because I'd walked through it hundreds of times when I worked at the top of Whiteladies Road, and used to walk up the hill from Hotwells and through Clifton to get there, and back again, every day.
Then a complete coincidence seemed to make the change I'd been hoping for. I was standing taking a photo of Christ in the front garden of All Saints church when a couple of people walked out of the front door. I got talking with a lady I took to be part of the ministerial team, who invited me to come in and look around—something I'd always wanted to do on the morning commute. (I think we connected a bit when I recognised the name John Piper, who did the amazing windows—I learned about him while I was at Warwick, through his connections to Coventry Cathedral.
I left with much more of a spring in my step, wandered around the area a bit more, finally working out that the tennis courts I used to pass every morning are those of Clifton Lawn Tennis Club, and finally grabbing an excellent Hungarian sausage hot dog from the Budapest Cafe. I feel a lot better now than I did before I went out.
Tags: Bristol Places UK onemilematt united kingdom Clifton
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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.
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.
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31 Jul 2021
At the end of July I went to have a look around some of the private gardens opened up by the annual Green Squares and Secret Gardens event. Sadly it was compressed into a single day this year, for various Covid-related reasons, it seems, so I didn't get to poke around too many places. I went to:
And snapped a few things in between, too. It was a lovely day—a bit too hot, if anything—and it was interesting to get into a few places I'd only ever seen from the outside, especially The Paragon and Cornwallis gardens, which are the least visible to passing strangers of all of them.
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Text Recognition Tags: Alhe ongeat Besdents Asooatten w n tact an Ownery Asoction n uy otheresidents sarvants and tnantamply datn'tcourt,ifwe are to jutge buan the Minuts of the eaure Ground Commttue whch in 1904 voted that taretoes and mer faes be et permitted to ae he plrae ground The ervants were dearly a problem, and in 12 e evatad alwng of Mers in the gendens s ogin droughta that he delinguents the ernt ot No2and t waireoked at the on Secnetany should wite to Mr. Esery ponting ut the e of actithe Canmitee eulbe forct to nahe reted the einquit n Ais aniceIta ey to beas ur predeeos but through the laboun of anore ar less ful-ine gadener e per wkin 18 they worted hard at cresting and mantaning the ganden we njny tody. Over the pears the Minutes book refers constantly to payments for eeh and shut, andtor the paths the lopping oftand the manteriance of the was-al of whah remainstnie ti day with the tres being partieular thefore he Camtt The gardemer tate tio epee It clear that toth heuses and gandes uffered dre eet setwthe as and for the folkowng 20 ywars Then in 1963 a Residents Aocutun was farmed whech emtraed the sgir af the age led by anewneration of owner aupies.and spitad tenantsa deteined attempe as made to mole etryane in the care of their haned anironmant The fact that eerol taf serp undanter rub ws of the state to which the prdns had deckned. There are stl a couple of ndents iing hers who took part in that massive dea e Weowe them agrst e We try to contue that self ep echos today, in the bellef that z fosters a samn of community All ptup residents er fleer paare tomatkally memters of the RA all havenght of acs to the garden Reponshlky for geting things done rests with everoe. The firat Sunda of she month is a'gandening elorning and we takein tus to mange the rkforce and alleate tasks. Keen gardeners are free moved d from the gardets is exidence enough s as much as they ke. Becently we haive been trying te manage he ganden to make mare wlfe frendly. We no Inngor spray the gravel path and we leave areasf the lawn unmwn to amcurage inects Some bird boons have teen pi u on the trees and Soses and badgers ane regar viston the latter not slwy welcome as they dig up the lan for wonms and gns dandeningrt, the grounds anea perfact plavaruund for chiidren and aduts ae de foctie, an anal bonfenight sctacule treasure hunts and bithday partiem, outdonr Shakeprare, carol singing sit doun meaand dancing in ourmarquee Lockdown in 2020 led to Cuckinghan Palace and the intraduction ofs fock of splenddy productive rescue hers, and this ar we started to plane truit ree aey The parden seemi to survive everything we thew t it, se far Alhe ongeat Besdents Asooatten w n tact an Ownery Asoction n uy otheresidents sarvants and tnantamply datn'tcourt,ifwe are to jutge buan the Minuts of the eaure Ground Commttue whch in 1904 voted that taretoes and mer faes be et permitted to ae he plrae ground The ervants were dearly a problem, and in 12 e evatad alwng of Mers in the gendens s ogin droughta that he delinguents the ernt ot No2and t waireoked at the on Secnetany should wite to Mr. Esery ponting ut the e of actithe Canmitee eulbe forct to nahe reted the einquit n Ais aniceIta ey to beas ur predeeos but through the laboun of anore ar less ful-ine gadener e per wkin 18 they worted hard at cresting and mantaning the ganden we njny tody. Over the pears the Minutes book refers constantly to payments for eeh and shut, andtor the paths the lopping oftand the manteriance of the was-al of whah remainstnie ti day with the tres being partieular thefore he Camtt The gardemer tate tio epee It clear that toth heuses and gandes uffered dre eet setwthe as and for the folkowng 20 ywars Then in 1963 a Residents Aocutun was farmed whech emtraed the sgir af the age led by anewneration of owner aupies.and spitad tenantsa deteined attempe as made to mole etryane in the care of their haned anironmant The fact that eerol taf serp undanter rub ws of the state to which the prdns had deckned. There are stl a couple of ndents iing hers who took part in that massive dea e Weowe them agrst e We try to contue that self ep echos today, in the bellef that z fosters a samn of community All ptup residents er fleer paare tomatkally memters of the RA all havenght of acs to the garden Reponshlky for geting things done rests with everoe. The firat Sunda of she month is a'gandening elorning and we takein tus to mange the rkforce and alleate tasks. Keen gardeners are free moved d from the gardets is exidence enough s as much as they ke. Becently we haive been trying te manage he ganden to make mare wlfe frendly. We no Inngor spray the gravel path and we leave areasf the lawn unmwn to amcurage inects Some bird boons have teen pi u on the trees and Soses and badgers ane regar viston the latter not slwy welcome as they dig up the lan for wonms and gns dandeningrt, the grounds anea perfact plavaruund for chiidren and aduts ae de foctie, an anal bonfenight sctacule treasure hunts and bithday partiem, outdonr Shakeprare, carol singing sit doun meaand dancing in ourmarquee Lockdown in 2020 led to Cuckinghan Palace and the intraduction ofs fock of splenddy productive rescue hers, and this ar we started to plane truit ree aey The parden seemi to survive everything we thew t it, se far
04 Dec 2021
I didn't take many pictures on this quite long wander, partly because Lisa and I wandered across to Bedminster via Bower Ashton, which I've snapped quite a lot of on the last couple of walks, and also because we lost the light fairly quickly, though spending a half-hour drinking mulled wine in the Ashton might have had a little to do with that...
Before we left Hotwells I wanted to visit a door I'd heard about on Cornwallis Crescent and also take a little look at a couple of houses in Dowry Square to consider the 1960s regeneration of Hotwells.
I've snapped this before, but I wanted to give it a bit of context. Peter Ware very much helped to save Dowry Square, as one of a group of "Newcomers" to the Hotwells area in the 1960s and 70s. Hotwells was basically a slum before then, with many of the buildings in a terrible state, including Dowry Square and Hope Square.
As I've recently been reading in Hotwells - Spa to Pantomime, these newcomers took their chances on a very dodgy area and decided to buy and do up a lot of the grand old houses that were almost ruins in some cases.
This early gentrification was important enough that John Boorman, of Excalibur fame made a BBC documentary about it called The Newcomers.)
Tags: Bristol Places UK onemilematt united kingdom Hotwells architect Dowry Square Peter Ware
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03 Dec 2021
On my last wander, to Bower Ashton, I was intending to knock Blackmoors Lane off my list "to-do" list, but got a bit diverted. I also took a little look into the history of the Gridiron, once a cheaper alternative to dry dock that was nestled just south of North Entrance Lock.
Today I had to go to send a parcel off somewhere, so I decided on going to the North Street Post Office via Blackmoors Lane. I didn't have much intention of anything else, but as luck would have it I walked out both at low tide and also as some lockkeepers seemed to be having a bit of a training session, and one of the more senior people was (a) happy to answer a few random questions on the Gridiron and (b) actually knew a lot about it, as Gridiron maintenance had been one of his jobs, more than twenty years ago...
So I might have missed the deadline a bit, then. Just as well I don't own any land around here...
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