A BS3 Museum Walk (Others Are Available)
Join me on one of my regular walks from my home to Ashton Gate, the home of Bristol City. I am highlighting the exhibits I connect with. If you were to undertake the walk you would, undoubtedly, see different things.
Exhibit 1 – Perrett Park
I enter Perrett Park through its main entrance at the top end and move slightly to the right. In front of me, on the skyline, I see, to my left, Dundry Parish Church. To my right I see Clifton Parish Church (Christchurch). Over the course of 12 months I am able to watch the sunsets as they move between the two churches, Dundry in the winter and Clifton in the summer. The variety of views seem infinite as do the range of colours and skyscapes to absorb. As one descends the steep concave slope which makes up the park, near the bottom entrance you encounter two anchor points. They are left over from World War. Barrage balloons were tethered there in attempts to deter the Luftwaffe bombing Bristol Docks and the goods marshalling yards at Temple Meads railway station. It’s difficult to imagine anyone bombing the harbourside in Bristol today. Or is it? I forgot to mention that, from the top of the park, you can see the Suspension Bridge.
Exhibit 2 – A Victorian Post Box
After leaving Perrett Park one quickly reaches St John’s Lane a long road that winds through Bedminster. At the junction with Paultow Road a Victorian pillar box is encountered. I have a thing about post boxes because they are a good way to mark the evolution of a particular location. In a place like Bristol that usually means the development of an urban setting. The pillar box on St John’s Lane gives me a clue as to when some of the adjacent housing was built. Further along I am likely to find post boxes but with markings of later monarchs. Towns and cities tend to spread out from a central point. Have a look at www.postboxmap.co.uk .
Exhibit 3 – Broad Plain RFC Ground
A couple of hundred yards along St John’s Lane is The Brunel pub. Behind it lie several rugby pitches, the home of Broad Plain RFC. But, long before the oval ball moved in, from 1894 until 1904 it was the home of Bristol South End FC which came Bristol City FC after the club amalgamated with Bedminster FC in 1897. Apart from my emotional connection to City through a lifetime’s support, it fascinates me that the site once had crowds of up to 14,000 to see some of the best teams of the day.
Exhibits 4 and 5 Albert Inn and McDonalds
As my journey continues onwards I reach the corner of Sheene Road and West Street, Bedminster. The former pub on the corner, currently known as the Departure Lounge, was once the Albert Inn and a pre-eminent venue for jazz music in Bristol. The thing is, I always meant to go there but never did. And then it closed about 20 years ago and has lurched along as a pub and bar ever since. The reason for it closing down, as I recall, was that the site was going to be redeveloped. Across the road on the opposite corner is a branch of McDonalds. It wasn’t always like that. For many years it was derelict. It had been the site of the Bedminster Tram Depot until a bomb hit in 1941. That, along with other bombs elsewhere in the city, meant the end of trams in Bristol although they were already on their way out before Germany’s intervention. My paternal grandfather worked at the tram depot.
Exhibit 6 – South Street
As I walk past South Street School I think of a friend who had been a pupil there. She could remember being taken to The Downs in 1897 when Queen Victoria visited the city in celebration of her Diamond Jubilee. Knowing somebody who had been alive at the end of the 19 th Century at the end of the 20 th Century gave me a real connection with the past.
Exhibit 7 – Tobacco Factory
Towards the end of North Street is the bar and arts venue, the Tobacco Factory. It is the one remaining reminder of Bristol’s tobacco industry. Once, In Bedminster and Ashton, there were what seemed like numerous red brick buildings all involved in producing tobacco products. As someone who has never smoked, even as a child, I was curious as to how so many people were employed producing such a deadly thing. And then it was gone, removed first to Hartcliffe then out of the city completely.
Should I be nostalgic at the sight of the one remaining testimony to such an
industry?
Exhibit 8 – Football Murals
In keeping with the street art reputation in the Ashton/Bedminster parts of BS3 recent years have seen a number of murals appear on the walls of buildings approaching Ashton Gate. They are all dedicated to ex-players living and dead who left their mark with the fans of Bristol City. I may sound a little middle class here but I do appreciate the crossover of a sport with a working class history and a modern form of art that fits the location.
My walk is at an end. I have reached the football ground. That’s another set of exhibits.
Trevor Simpson