Bristol April 2024

It has been very windy and feeling cold all the time I have been here! And it’s been raining on and off. But I did manage a few hours walking around the city on Friday. Much has changed since my last visit, much has not. Here are a few pictures, taken on my phone since I forgot to bring the camera charging cable!

Bathurst Basin – these little backwaters can be found all over the city. Bristol is builton rivers and canals. The lock gates have long since rotted away, the lock silted up and the water the preserve of ducks. Access from the other end is still possible.

All that remains of the ‘new’ Bristol Gaol in Cumberland Road. Built in 1820, it was largely destroyed in the Bristol riots of 1831 and rebuilt. It lasted only until 1883 when replaced by a new prison. It was demolished in 1898, apart from the gatehouse which remains.

The nearby Goal Ferry bridge dates from 1935 and spans the New Cut canal. By that time, few ships used the waterway. The fixed bridge replaced the ferry. The bridge was repaired and restored in 2023 and is now fully open.

The lock gates at the harbour entrance are now rarely opened. In the background is the Clifton suspension bridge.

The Clifton Suspension Bridge is one of Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s masterworks. It dates from 1835 and is a toll bridge, used by vehicles crossing the river as it has done for almost 200 years. The works are open to visitors. I know people who will not walk across it. On a windy day it can be felt swaying slightly.

One of the many former commercial wharves and docks, now the home of pleasure and houseboats, lined with expensive houses. This is Poole’s wharf.

This sorry looking three-master sailing ship, the Fridtjof Nansen, was destined to be an educational sailing vessel taking young people on character forming journeys. Presumably for want of funding, it now lies sad and abandoned moored across from SS Great Britain.

Another of Brunel’s works. At its time, the largest passenger ship ever. The SS Great Britain lay derelict in the Falkland Islands until 1970, when it was towed back to Bristol and subsequently restored.

The colourful houses on the hill are typical of the city. The grey ship on the left is the Fridtjof Nansen.

The remains of the railways that served the docks until their closure in 1975 can still be seen here and there. On the other side of the river, the Bristol Harbour Railway preserves a short stretch of the system, with working steam locomotives running on summer weekends.

Not quite what I expected to see!

Nor this! Urban myth? What kind of crocodile would want to live in these cold and murky waters?

The view downriver from Castle Green. The castle is long gone, demolished after the English Civil War. Bristol was on the wrong, losing, side!

Where the castle once stood.

Castle Green and St Peter’s Church from the river. The latter is a bombed out ruin, a relic of the air raids on Bristil during World War Two. It was closed and under repair at the time of my visit.