Tagged: residential-area
Jacob's Well Wander
01 Feb 2021
I just wanted to get some exercise, really, so I set out to knock off the lower bit of Jacobs Wells Road that I'd not managed to walk up yet. I set the new signboard that the community association had had erected as my destination, after reading about it on their blog.
As it turned out, I couldn't even read it, as the building that houses the actual Jacob's Well had water flooding out onto the pavement. I wonder if it was actual Jacob's Well water? Have the soles of my walking shoes been mystically blessed now?
You can't see much of the flood in the photos I snapped, but I did shoot a little video, too. Ed on Twitter said:
I spoke to the seller at the time with a view to buying it - I mentioned an old friend who grew up nearby remembers it flooding regularly. He swore blind my friend was wrong.
The first local electric bike shop was at the bottom of Jacobs Wells Road; it seems to have attracted some larger competition. I think this place was a sporting goods shop before, specialising in cricket equipment, if my memory isn't deceiving me. When the shutters are up, they've got a large range of electric bikes and scooters on display.
Sandwiched between residences, the Brandon Free Methodist Church is now also, of course, residential. In its time it's been "a Buddhist Centre, a martial arts school, and Bristol Society of Magic."
I knew I'd taken a photo here before, but I couldn't remember for the life of me if I'd actually walked up it. Didn't have time to explore today.
Now home to a tax accountant. It's on the "local list" but without much in the way of detail.
I wonder if anyone's ever rushed some wounded person in there looking for the casualty departement, only to find it's actually a school?
Greville Smyth Path Completionism
02 Feb 2021
I needed to get away from my desk at lunchtime, and I saw a little segment of path in Greville Smyth Park that needed knocking off my "to walk down" list, so that gave me a target. Sadly Hopper Coffee's little Piaggio Ape wasn't there to sell me a coffee. I hope Rich is all right, not seen him so far this year.
Anyway, a fairly uneventful walk. They're putting new boundary fencing up around Hotwell Primary School (I wandered down Albermarle Row to see what the pneumatic drilling was about), the house on Granby Hill that's been covered in scaffolding and swaddled in protective sheeting has finally been revealed in its cleaned and refurbished form, and they were doing something to the flyover that leads up from the end of the Portway/Hotwell Road to the Plimsoll Bridge. Nothing much else to report.
Freshly refurbished, this is the first time I've seen it not covered in scaffolding, and it looks like they've done a sympathetic job. Historic England's listing says:
House. c1790. Stucco with limestone dressings, gable stacks and a pantile mansard roof. Double-depth plan. Late Georgian style. 2 storeys and attic; 3-window range. A symmetrical front has pilaster strips to a moulded coping; semicircular-arched doorway has a plate-glass fanlight and 6-panel door with flush lower panels. 2/2-pane ground-floor sashes with margin panes, 8/8-pane first-floor sashes, the middle one blocked and replaced with a small C20 casement; 2 small raking dormers.
Note the "middle one blocked and replaced with a small C20 casement". You can see it in the picture on the listing website, a weird small modern window in the bricked-up middle of the centre top-floor window. Here, now, it's been restored to match the other two windows and looks a lot better. Nice one.
You can't see what's going on at the top of the flyover, but you can certainly tell that there's a lot of work vehicles up there.
In Between
06 Feb 2021
A lovely walk in the early spring sunshine with my friend Lisa. We headed directly for Jacobs Wells Road, to start off around the scene of one of our earlier walks, but this time took in Jacobs Wells from QEH upward, stopping to snap some photos of a Bear With Me, some interesting areas between Park Street and Brandon Hill including a peculiarly quiet enclave with a ruined old build I'd never found before, then crossed the Centre to grab take-away pies from Pieminister (I had the Heidi Pie) and head back to my place down the harbourside.
First it was a house, though a strange small one, from what I recall, then it was a ruin, then it was a gap, and now it's a structure and I imagine it will soon be a house again.
Need to head up a few of these. There's another street back there somewhere, plus the paths I've not walked on Brandon Hill
Apparently her feast day is 21st January, my birthday. Venerated as foundress of the monastery of Oughter Ard in Ardclough County Kildare, according to Wikipedia. Long way from home.
A wander to knock off a couple of bits around Clifton Park that I'd missed out on previous excursions. This one took in the drinking fountain near Sion Hill and explained a little of how the Seven Years War, which ended in 1763, still has some history on display near Manilla Road.
It's cool to have an oculus window in your garage gable-end, but the fact that it's just offset from the centre of the roofline would drive me mad. I suppose if you live in the house behind it you don't have to look at it.
(Photographic Lack of) Worcester Terrace
09 Feb 2021
A nice walk, but something of a failure, photographically. I went to knock Worcester Terrace off my list, a not dissimilar terrace to Vyvyan Terrace, but one street further away from me. Like yesterday, it was very chilly but this time I went prepared with an extra layer and a winter coat. I think this may have been my downfall, as it may have been the X100T's control wheel brushing against the coat that put it in aperture priority mode at f/16, which I didn't notice at the time, and made most of my photos a little too blurry to use. Apparently in this mode, the X100 doesn't bump up the ISO if it can tell things might be a little too wobbly. Ah well.
So, a nice enough walk, and technically I did Worcester Terrace, but if you didn't take a photograph, were you really there? I'll have to go back...
I don't know much about architecture, but I understand that if your porch has a dormer, you're probably quite well-off.
The posh place on the end of Worcester Terrace seems to be the only bit with Ionic columns. They're all over Vyvyan Terrace, behind.
Arlington Villas and WH Smith Destruction
10 Feb 2021
I actually dashed up to Clifton to take a look at Arlington Villas, just around the back of St Paul's Road, one of those slightly odd little enclaves of overlooked housing that you know is there, but you never have a reason to visit or travel down. As it turned out, interesting though the (public) garden is, I actually took far more pictures of the now-completely-demolished site bounded by King's Road, Boyce's Avenue and Clifton Down Road where WH Smith and other places used to stand.
It's interesting to imagine how nice this little area would be if turned into a permanent public square, but of course the developers already have their planning permission to build it right back up again.
There seems to be something sinister about the rather strange addition on the right-hand side to me.
It might be useful to know that this is a Voi scooter parking place, if I ever slim down enough to fit under their 100kg weight limit. Sigh.
Another day, another coffee. I think I may have knocked a tiny footpath in Baltic Wharf from my list of leftover paths in the area, but mostly this walk was about getting out into the crisp February cold and enjoying the walk. On the way I posted a letter at 13 Dowry Parade (home of a surgeon called Willam Falls back 1830, according to Pigot's Directory of Gloucestershire...) and pondered the strange duality of Dowry Parade and Hotwell Road, then wandered through the Dowry Parade end of Cumberland Piazza, enjoying the clean lines of the glyph graff, before taking the causeway route past a Cumberland Basin empty of water but full of seagulls, to make my way south of the harbour.
Clifton Village, including Oxford Place
15 Feb 2021
I've noticed Oxford Place as a tiny little side/back road I've overlooked on my wanders a few times. Today I decided to pop down and have a look, as well as taking a few general snaps of Princess Victoria Street, which I thought deserved more pictures, as it's basically my closest decent shops, and in the Beforetimes I'd visit the Co-Op up there all the time, as well as the cafes (you'll be missed, Clifton Village branch of Boston Tea Party, recently closed in favour of Eat a Pitta.)
I'm definitely becoming more familiar with the area through the One Mile Matt jaunts and associated reading. Today I didn't just think, "oh, I'll head home down that weird alleyway with the electrical substation in it"—no, I thought, "I'll head home down Hanover Lane", because I actually knew its name. And on the way back from there I nodded sagely to myself as I passed St Vincent's Road, knowing now which St Vincent it's likely to be (St Vincent of Saragossa) and also eyed up the modern flats on Clifton Vale and wondered if they might have been built on the site of the former Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens... I don't know all the answers, but at least I have some idea of the historical questions I'm interested in.
Their coffee is pretty reliable, but the last few times I've been in one member of staff or another has had ther nose poking out over their face mask, and it's not exactly well-ventilated in there. I think I'll steer clear until the pandemic's over. Spicer+Cole, Foliage and Twelve are all better bets at the moment, for excellent coffee and for not dying of an infectious disease.
Not sure why they're digging up the road this time. Last time there was a burst water main at the corner of Merchants Road.
I've barely ever noticed the two modern blocks there. They blend in rather well with the Georgian stuff.
I tend to overlook this place because of the rather more fun gothic revival place just down the road, but it does at least have some character.
Meridian
17 Feb 2021
The long road between Clifton Road and Park Place—the little triangle of grass in front of the Pro-Cathedral, which also houses Quinton House pub, the Park Launderette and Mr Swantons Barbers—is one I've travelled a lot, as it's a nice route between my place and the top of Park Street, especially Ocado. It has many names along the way, even though it feels like just one continuous road. It's York Place, Tottenham Place, Meridian Place and Bruton Place before it finally spits you out onto Park Place.
It was Meridian Place I was interested in today, as I wanted to explore the set of steps that lead down from it in the direction of Jacobs Wells Road. Turns out they lead to Meridian Vale and Meridian Mews, and come out between the Strangers Burial Ground and the Eldon House, opposite the entrance to Bellevue Terrace. I liked the little terrace on Meridian Vale, though they probably don't get a lot of light in the front windows, what with Meridian Place and Tottenham Place towering above them.
On the way back home I popped into the little lane behind Regent Street that houses the Chesterfield Hospital, as I realised I'd neglected that up until now. It was... unexciting.
I only just noticed what looks like a large ammonite in the wall on the left. No idea what it actually is.
Considerate. I wonder how often this little cut-through is used? I suppose it's a very quick way of getting to The Eldon House from up here, at least.
I only came up towards Regent Street for coffee, but the queue at foliage cafe put me off and I remembered I'd hadn't been to have a look at the big private hospital around the back.
It doesn't look like much. Behind that wall is my regularly-used cut-through between Saville Place and Fosseway.
Oooh! Looked to me like the new occupants might have been having a look around. Maybe it'll be opening up as a new interesting business at some point. It's usually been a restaurant—the Walrus and the Carpenter, a Mexican place where i remember trying chilli ice cream, and most recently a not-very-good branch of the generally-decreasingly-good Thali Cafe.
Very Brief Hotwells Wander
18 Feb 2021
Really just a quick loop of the Cumberland Basin. I was going to go further, and it was a nice early spring day, but I hadn't slept that well and I wasn't really in the mood. Ah well. Not every walk is great. At least I got out of the house for a bit.
