Three feet and six inches is the precise length from the front of the counter to the back wall of Bristol’s smallest café. Like so many projects, 3ft 6 was formulated during lockdown, by artist and designer Rob Savage. Sav, as he is known to most people (and most people around here do know him), lived next door and opened this café within his garage-cum-workshop for the first time in March 2022. He opened it not really knowing what to expect, but it now serves a need for hot drinks and sweet treats, with new owners Jack and Jess due to take over before 2025 from Sav, who has moved to a forest in Wales.
Located close to where Redfield becomes Barton Hill, 3ft 6 can be glimpsed from Netham Park and is now a community hub. Neighbours who had lived on the same road as each other for years spoke properly for the first time over a cup of coffee and a slice of cake. Cyclists regularly pop in for refuelling. Its bright colours (Barbados Skies by Dulux if you’re asking) help to draw in other punters – who if they’re lucky can sit around a table taking up a car parking space on the road. Coffee here is roasted by Blind Owl on nearby Feeder Road, with dairy-free milk from Tiger & Float. Ciabatta rolls from the Forest Bakery, another St Philip’s business, accompany soup on Sundays.
Before Sav relocated from Bristol to a Welsh forest, most of the garage was still his workshop, with this space at the front of it able to be moved away so he could still get on with his day job. As it got more popular, it extended its opening hours with employee number one Casey not working front of house but front of garage. On Christmas Day 2022, during their first festive season in business, Sav opened up 3ft 6 and served hot drinks for free to anyone who wanted them (he also served booze to anyone who wanted to pay). It was a huge outpouring of Christmas cheer from Bristol’s smallest café.
Address 0.5 Lancaster Street, Redfield, BS5 9QL, www.instagram.com/ 3ft6_hot_drinks_house | Getting there 8-minute walk from Lawrence Hill station; short walk from Netham Park; buses 42 & 43 to Church Road | Hours Tue – Thu 8am – 11am, Fri 8am – 2pm, Sat & Sun 10am – 4pm | Tip Born in Bristol and the Small City Bookshop are just two of a number of independent shops on nearby Church Road.
acta Community Theatre
No need to audition
You don’t have to go far in Bristol to find a theatre, or spaces in which theatre is performed. Above a pub is the Alma Tavern Theatre; just 12 people at a time were able to see the first-ever theatre performances staged within the vaults of the Clifton Suspension Bridge; south of the river, the Tobacco Factory Theatres play in a former tobacco factory; and promenade theatre experts Show of Strength have put on shows focusing on the slave trade and some of the area’s more unusual characters.
Also south of the river, between North Street and West Street in Bedminster, is one of the UK’s leading community theatres, which celebrated its 35th anniversary in September 2020. acta aims to engage people who are not connected to the cultural life of Bristol, including isolated older people; migrants, refugees and asylum seekers; vulnerable young people; disabled people; and people living outside the city centre where most of Bristol’s opportunities to access the arts are located. The company are specialists at developing a new audience for theatre with more than a dozen original shows created every year.
‘We believe that theatre belongs to everyone, and everyone has a story to tell,’ wrote acta co-founder Neil Beddow in a blog post to mark the organisation’s 35 years. The acronym came before it was decided what it should stand for, which was eventually chosen to be Avon Community Theatre Agency. The company’s early days saw it working in a youth club in Hartcliffe, and setting up youth theatres in areas including Lockleaze and Knowle West, among the most underprivileged corners not only of Bristol but also of the UK.
Today, community members create and perform original drama which is rooted in their own experiences and stories. There is never an audition, as people from some of the city’s most deprived areas continue to use theatre to express and overcome their struggles.
Address Gladstone Street, Bedminster, BS3 3AY, +44(0)117 953 2448, www.actabristol.com | Getting there Bus 24 to North Street or bus 75, 76 to West Street, then short walk | Hours Open for productions and private hires | Tip A few hundred yards from acta on North Street is Zara’s Chocolates, a chocoholic’s paradise. Watch Zara Narracott and her team hard at work while indulging yourself in the shop-cum-cafe. You can even learn how to make chocolate yourself at regular workshops and tasting events (www.zaraschocolates.com).
Broadmead Baptist Church
The church above the shops
Thousands of shoppers pass by Broadmead Baptist Church every day, unaware that it even exists, but a church has stood here since a chapel was founded on this site in 1640. The area survived heavy World War II bombing before being redeveloped in the 1960s, replacing what is now Castle Park as the city’s main shopping district. Today, Broadmead remains busy with shoppers and visitors to its popular annual German Christmas market. Look up while you walk down Union Street and you will see Broadmead Baptist Church – known as ‘the church above the shops’. Completed in 1969, it has a spacious timber-clad interior within a Brutalist concrete shell; without its original timber spire it is even more hidden from view.
Broadmead’s first Baptist worshippers were initially persecuted by the civil and established church authorities, but despite this the church grew steadily in numbers during the 17th century. Significant Broadmead worshippers over the centuries include William Knibb, who campaigned successfully against slavery in British overseas colonies.
When the Broadmead development was still on the drawing board, the Rev. R. W. Waddelow convinced city planners that there was a need to house his congregation above the new shops, with the result that Broadmead Baptist Church was allowed to remain while other city-centre churches moved elsewhere across Bristol. One of Waddelow’s successors, the Rev. J. Penry Davies, was closely involved with the development of the new building, envisaging a ‘Baptist cathedral of the West’. In recent years, worshippers were instrumental in developing a city-centre Christian chaplaincy that until 2018 served the city’s business community, their employees and families. During the week, shoppers and workers can still make use of the church’s undercroft, which offers a quiet space in the middle of the hectic day.
Address 1 Whippington Court, Union Street, BS1 3HY, +44 (0)117 929 1387, broadmeadbaptist@gmail.com, www.broadmeadbaptist.org.uk | Getting there 3-minute walk from Bristol bus station, entrance next to Tesco Metro | Hours Sun worship 11am; Tue lunchtime service 1.10pm | Tip Bristol played a major role in the history of chocolate production, with the first mass-produced chocolate bar made in the city by Fry’s. The name lives on in Fry’s Chocolate Cream, now the world’s oldest brand of chocolate. A plaque marks the location of the original Fry factory next to KFC on Union Street.
Clifton Rock Slide
Polished smooth by generations of bottoms
In 2014, Bristol artist Luke Jerram installed a giant water slide down Park Street. Running for one day only, almost 100,000 people signed up for their chance to get a ‘ticket to slide’ through an online ballot. Jerram’s slide has since been recreated in other cities across the world but even though it was a one-off, only a mile and a half away there is a slide open all year round. Unofficially the sign that you have become a bona fide Bristol native if you have slid your way down to the bottom, the Clifton rock slide is a natural rock formation close to the Clifton Suspension Bridge that has been rubbed smooth and shiny by thousands of sliding posteriors over many years.
It actually doesn’t have an official name. Clifton rock slide seems its most suitable moniker for our purposes, but it is also known as the slidey rock, the sliding rock, the slippery rocks or just the slider – the latter thanks to the local vernacular (see also, to ‘smooth’ rather than pet a dog, and the obligatory ‘cheers, drive’ (see ch. 31) when getting off the bus). The slide is easy to spot, with the natural rock formation next to a footpath perfectly suited for some fun on your way to see the picture-postcard view of the bridge. Once you have found it, you need to hop over a fence, get your bottom into position and then let gravity do the rest. Make sure you have your wits about you, as depending on what clothes you are wearing on your lower half, you can quickly build up speed during your descent.
The origins of the rock slide are lost in the mists of time. But it is fascinating to think that perhaps even fun-loving Iron Age tribespeople might too have slid down here, with one of Bristol’s three ancient hill forts situated just a few hundred yards away on what is now Observatory Hill, with two others on the other side of the Avon Gorge possibly once occupied by different groups from the same Dobunni tribe.
Address Litfield Road, Clifton, BS8 3LT | Getting there Less than a minute’s walk from Clifton Suspension Bridge, accessed off footpath heading up towards Clifton Observatory from Suspension Bridge Road | Hours Unrestricted | Tip Originally built as a windmill in 1766, the Clifton Observatory now contains one of only three camera obscuras in the UK, is the access point for the Giant’s Cave and is the home of a cafe with a terrace offering unrivalled views of the Clifton Suspension Bridge (www.cliftonobservatory.com).
The Cube
Much more than just a cinema
The history of the building that is home to the Cube Microplex is almost as eclectic as what happens now within its four walls. It has previously been a glass recycling depot, an amateur-dramatics theatre, a gay avant-garde art centre, an extension of the Chinese Overseas Association, a girls’ school, a deaf and dumb institute, a secret gig venue, and an illegal gambling den. Today, the Cube is run by a dedicated group of volunteers as a not-for-profit workers’ cooperative, screening films, putting on live music, making their own-recipe cola and much more. Anybody can attend as long as they are a member –which costs just £1 for life.
The Cube was formed in 1998 by four artists who freely admit they had no idea what they were getting into. The am-dram group had built the wooden staging themselves, with this DIY ethic living on in the volunteers who are the lifeblood of the building.
‘We are amateurs, but we resist the negative connotations of that word,’ they say. Some of Bristol’s most memorable evenings of entertainment take place in this higgledy-piggledy building in a sort of no-man’s-land between Stokes Croft, Kingsdown and the city centre.
Whether it be cinema or live music, cabaret or comedy, the Cube’s programme is not easily definable. Regular events include morning film screenings for parents and carers with babies under one, a house orchestra, and a short film version of open-mic nights. They have sent volunteers to Haiti to screen films for earthquake survivors, provide an internet server for Kingsdown, pride themselves on being Bristol’s cheapest cinema and give free entry to all of their events to asylum seekers. In 2014, following an extraordinary outpouring of generosity from the Bristol public, the Cube team raised £185,000 in order to buy the building, and have since carried on as eclectically as ever.
Address Dove Street South, Kingsdown, BS2 8JD, +44 (0)117 907 4190, cubeadmin@cubecinema.com, www.cubecinema.com | Getting there 5-minute walk from either Bristol bus station or Stokes Croft | Hours Usually daily, but check listings for film and event times | Tip You would hope that the films at the Cube are only good ones. If you want a guaranteed stinker, however, look no further than Bristol Bad Film Club, who revel in screening so-bad-they’re-great cult classics (www.bristolbadfilmclub.co.uk).
Kiln Restaurant
Once the hottest place in town
Looking at illustrated panoramas of bygone Bristol, it’s hard to find familiar silhouettes of buildings other than churches. The view is more pastoral, with fields where there are now houses; the tall masts of ships stand like a forest of trees right along the docks into the heart of the city. One other astonishing difference from then to the present day is the number of structures that look like upside-down ice cream cones. When the poet Alexander Pope visited Bristol in 1739, he counted 20 such cones, ‘smoking over the town’. These were kilns that used to belch thick smoke, and were used in the manufacture of both glass and pottery. Bristol was once the UK’s largest glass-making centre outside of London, with the industry centred around Redcliffe where fine sand needed in its production was mined.
Reminders of this era have all but gone, and the only surviving structure from Bristol’s glass industry can be found on Prewett Street. Built between 1773 and 1812, it replaced an earlier cone from the 17th century and was originally 46 metres (150 feet) high. The site was later incorporated into a chemical works and used as a chemical store until shortly before World War II, when the cone was reduced in height due to the deterioration of its brickwork. The top was removed and a roof of corrugated sheeting put over it before the truncated cone became a restaurant in the 1970s as part of the new Dragonara Hotel – owners Ladbrokes making the unusual decision for the time of converting rather than demolishing.
In its early days, the restaurant won culinary acclaim and was a place to be seen, with bands such as Thin Lizzy and visiting football and cricket teams also passing through the hotel. Today, the Kiln serves unadventurous culinary fare such as beef burgers, herb crusted racks of English lamb and cheesecake within its unique historic surroundings.
Address Doubletree by Hilton, Redcliffe Way, Redcliffe, BS1 6NJ, +44 (0)117 926 0041, www.doubletree3.hilton.com | Getting there 3-minute walk from Temple Meads | Hours
Breakfast Mon – Fri 6.30 – 9.30am, Sat & Sun 7 – 10.30am; dinner Mon – Sat 6 – 10pm | Tip Another restaurant in Redcliffe, Paco Tapas, is regularly named among the best in the UK. Enjoy a sherry at this modern tapas bar bringing a taste of Andalusia to Bristol (www.pacotapas.co.uk).
Napier Square
A one-sided square
It is unthinkable today to imagine Queen Square in the city centre with a dual carriageway dissecting its grandeur, but that was the fate that from 1936 befell one of the largest Georgian squares in Europe when Redcliffe Way was ploughed diagonally through it – only for the road to be removed almost in time for the square’s 300th anniversary in 1999. Two other fine Georgian squares, which have both seen plenty of redevelopment in recent years on the front line of Bristol’s battle against gentrification, are Brunswick Square and Portland Square in St Paul’s – the latter home to St Paul’s Church, the headquarters of Circomedia (see ch. 35).
But there is one square in Bristol that is not a square at all. In the 1890s, there were ambitious plans for Napier Square in Avonmouth to be constructed as a grand formal public square lined on four sides with stone houses. Unfortunately, plans ground to a halt when the Great Western Railway decided to build their line to Henbury through the part-built square, similar to what Bristol Corporation did to Queen Square several decades later.
Only one side of the square exists today, squeezed against the dock boundary, with houses named after English towns such as Derby and Dover. On one end of the road is Avonmouth Village Social Club, where you can find some of the cheapest drinks in the area to accompany the karaoke.
Avonmouth celebrated its 150th anniversary in 2015, making it the same age as the Clifton Suspension Bridge. What we now know as Avonmouth did not exist before the Victorian era, prior to which the area known as River’s Mouth was, according to local historian David Martyn, ‘muddy, wet, exposed and inhospitable’. The modern Avonmouth grew after a new railway, still in operation today (see ch. 95), was built linking the docks in central Bristol with the tidal estuary of the River Severn.
Address Napier Square, Avonmouth, BS11 9AJ | Getting there Severn Beach Line from Bristol Temple Meads to Avonmouth; bus 3 to McLaren Road | Hours Unrestricted | Tip The Miles family were responsible for the development of much of Avonmouth. Look out for an ornate carved family coat of arms high up on the Royal Hotel on Gloucester Road (www.royalhotelbristol.co.uk).
Sea Mills Museum
A memorable use for an old telephone box
As part of a heritage project celebrating 100 years of the Sea Mills estate, a disused red telephone box was transformed into one of the UK’s smallest museums. One of its first displays marked Remembrance Sunday, including the story of an 18-year-old, among the first people to be born in Sea Mills, who died on a convoy ship during World War II. Also remembered are an American soldier billeted here, and a Jewish family who escaped the Nazis and found safety in nearby Sylvan Way.
A decorated Christmas tree inside the telephone box was an early indication that something unusual was afoot. Work started to restore it in February 2019, with a lamp and lampshade installed as part of Window Wanderland, an art project which usually sees front windows rather than telephone boxes brightly decorated. With a lick of paint, new signage and a floor made from old coins, the first display included oral history recordings and a related heritage trail across Sea Mills which saw current homeowners researching former residents of their house.
Overlooking the telephone box is Addison’s Oak, which in 2019 was shortlisted in the Woodland Trust’s Tree of the Year competition. Described as ‘one of Bristol’s most important monuments’, it was planted in 1919 to mark the start of the building of a citywide public housing scheme that was to provide ‘homes fit for heroes’ returning from World War I. The mini museum is located within what is officially a K6 kiosk, designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott to commemorate the silver jubilee of King George V in 1935. Scott was also an architect, who in Bristol designed Electricity House, now luxury flats in the city centre, and 37 – 39 Corn Street, originally a bank and now student accommodation. There were some 60,000 examples of the K6 installed across the British Isles, but only this one in Sea Mills is believed to be used in such a way.
Address Junction of Shirehampton Road and St Edyth’s Road, Sea Mills, BS9 2DY, www.seamills100.co.uk | Getting there Severn Beach railway line to Sea Mills; bus 4 to Sea Mills Square | Hours Sun – Fri 9am – 5pm, Sat 10am – 5pm | Tip The museum features on Sea Mills & Coombe Dingle Climate Action Group’s local nature trail. Pick up a paper map from the nearby Cafe on the Square (tinyurl.com/SeaMillsTrail).
Seven Saints of St Paul’s
Honouring seven esteemed legacies
After a four-year project remembering the origins of St Paul’s Carnival in time for its 50th anniversary celebrations in 2018, which also coincided with the 70th anniversary of the arrival of the Windrush generation, the incredible stories of seven people were represented on huge murals across their own neighbourhood of Bristol. Alongside their faces, known to so many, are symbols and quotes representing their tireless work in the community. These colourful, poignant murals created by artist Michele Curtis celebrate The Seven Saints of St Paul’s: Audley Evans, Barbara Dettering, Carmen Beckford, Clifford Drummond, Delores Campbell, Owen Henry and Roy Hackett.
Michele worked closely with the surviving members of the seven to best represent their stories, and was told plenty of tales by family members of those who had died, which allowed her to honour their legacies. The idea for the project came to Michele while she was still a student at City of Bristol College, but she never thought that her charcoal and graphite portraits on paper would just a few years later be transformed on such a large scale, with a one-off exhibition becoming a permanent heritage trail and outdoor gallery, accompanied by a mobile app. Michele says that she uses art as a platform to share the experiences of the African Caribbean community in Bristol, for whom St Paul’s Carnival is much more than just a street party; it’s a celebration of their heritage. The carnival founders were all members of the Bristol West Indian Parents & Friends Association, which was also the organisation behind the Bristol Bus Boycott (see ch. 15). As well as honouring the work of the seven, Michele hopes that the project will have a wider influence on the subject of cultural diversity in Bristol, saying, ‘Our identity as British citizens is a shared identity and a melting pot of many different cultures.’
Address Various locations, www.iconicblackbritons.com/the-seven-saints-of-stpauls | Getting there Bus 5 to City Road | Hours Unrestricted | Tip St Paul’s Adventure Playground has for many years been a popular hangout. The community rallied around the playground in order to rebuild it following an arson attack in 2020 (www.apeproject.co.uk).
That Thing
Fabulous festival fashion
There is a particular emphasis on festival fashion at That Thing, a shop on Stokes Croft named after a song by Lauryn Hill, who coincidentally headlined The Downs festival in Bristol in summer 2019. Stock up on biodegradable glitters, colourful bum bags, furry earrings and after-party tickets. Elsewhere, graffiti spray paint and pens sit on shelves next to mugs and sequined headdresses. On rails hang clothes from dozens of independent designers, including many from Bristol. Up a small flight of stairs is the homeware section, featuring everything from notebooks to tea strainers, vintage mirrors to rugs.
Also upstairs, vintage menswear can be found next to beanie hats, baseball caps, sweatshirts and backpacks branded with the That Thing logo as part of their in-house line, so you can show your love of this shop wherever you go. Anything wrapped in plastic is already on at least its second use, with any plastic packaging unable to be repurposed by the team made into ecobricks.
That Thing was founded in 2015 after being forced to change their name from Dutty following an ultimately unsuccessful two-year legal battle with giant Spanish brand Massimo Dutti. Originating as a club night and a platform for women in hip-hop, their ethos is ‘to present an up-to-the-minute fresh and eclectic mix of unique pieces, affordable luxury street wear, vintage clothing and lifestyle products’. Vintage at That Thing mostly incorporates fashion from the 1990s, so expect plenty of bright colours and bold prints. In the winter, the work of around 50 independent designers is stocked here, which rises to around 60 in the summer with even more festival wear-orientated brands. In December 2021, That Thing was one of five shops in Bristol chosen to sell souvenir t-shirts made by Banksy, with all profits going to the ‘Colston 4’, the four people on trial following the toppling of the statue of Edward Colston. A jury at Bristol Crown Court found them all not guilty of criminal damage.
Address 45-47 Stokes Croft, BS1 3QP, info@thatthing.co, www.thatthing.co | Getting there 4-minute walk from bus station; bus 70, 73, 75 or 76 to Stokes Croft | Hours Mon – Sat 10am – 6pm | Tip Pieminister was founded on Stokes Croft, where they still have a restaurant and their head office. Purveyors of mighty fine pies (including vegan option Kevin), they also have restaurants in St Nick’s Market and Broad Quay as well as across the UK (www.pieminister.co.uk).
Martin Booth is the editor of Bristol24/7, the city’s leading news and entertainment website and magazine. He has written for publications including The Times, The Guardian, The Telegraph, Time Out and Metro, and in 2021 was shortlisted in the British Journalism Awards for his work covering the ‘kill the bill’ protests. In his spare time, he enjoys cycling, drinking locally-roasted coffee and locally-brewed beer, and leading walking tours of Bristol – bookable online via Yuup. Martin lives in Bristol city centre with his wife, Joanna, and their two daughters, Mersina and Lois. Follow him on X and Instagram for all things Bristol and more at @beardedjourno.
Barbara Evripidou is an award-winning photographer with three decades of experience. As a former press photographer, her images have been published in all the UK’s national newspapers, and she has worked all over the world. The highlight of her career was working with the British Army in Bosnia, covering the efforts to rebuild the country. These days she focuses on PR, portrait and commercial work. When she’s not got a camera in her hand you can find her at a metal gig, at the cinema or exploring Bristol - where she lives with her children, Theo and Anna. Find out more at firstavenuephotography.com.
The information in this book was accurate at the time of publication, but it can change at any time. Please confirm the details for the places you’re planning to visit before you head out on your adventures.
