The Bristol Magazine February 2020

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THE

THEBRISTOLMAG.CO.UK

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Issue 188

I

FeBRuaRy 2020

MAGAZINE

ALL OVER BEETHOVEN Join John Suchet in celebrating the composer’s 250th anniversary

CUT FROM THE SAME CLOTH The father and son flying in the face of fast fashion

OH! CAROLE The life of a legendary pop songwriter

HOME FOLK How did Clifton Village get its name?

POSTER BOYS Bohemian art from the streets of Montmartre

A GLIMPSE OF TOKYO PREPARATIONS FOR TWO OF BRISTOL’S ARTISTIC AQUATICS STARS T H E C I T Y ’ S B I G G E S T M O N T H LY G U I D E T O L I V I N G I N B R I S T O L

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Image by James Beck

Contents

February 2020

REGULARS ZEITGEIST

DEATH & DIGITAL LEGACY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

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Top activities for the month to come

CITYIST

We now generate masses of information about ourselves daily – Paul Wiseall discusses the pros and cons of online immortality

SPORT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

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Catch up on local news and meet local creative Ricky Martin

The inspirational artistic swimming duo training for the Olympic qualifiers, campaigning for the planet and encouraging young athletes

BARTLEBY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

FOOD & DRINK

...Is, to be quite honest, at breaking point

59

NEWS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

This month Lansdown Place talks tax matters

Stories from local foodies, restaurants and producers

BRISTOL UPDATES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

VALENTINE’S DINING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

WEALTH MANAGEMENT

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News from local businesses and community organisations

EDUCATION NEWS

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News from the sector

FAMILY FUN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66 Ideas for things to do in the city if you’ve little ones in tow

HEALTH & BEAUTY

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Ethical essentials to help ensure healthy, great-looking skin

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Join John Suchet, and St George’s, in celebrating Beethoven’s big year, and read about the Carole King musical arriving at Bristol Hippodrome

WHAT’S ON

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It’s important to know where our food comes from, and that the processes involved are sustainable and humane, says Simon Horsford

RECIPE

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GREAT OUTDOORS

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WILD BRISTOL

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ART & EXHIBITIONS

PROPERTY

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32

The PRSC arts fair celebrating the diversity of 21st-century love, Iranian photography at Arnolfini, and poster art from the streets of Montmartre

FEATURES HISTORY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 How Clifton Village acquired its name, from a local musician in the ’70s

STYLE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 We get a glimpse into the working life of the ciy’s stalwart style experts Territo Tailoring on Park Street

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GARDENING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84 A carefully thought-out container display can really create a strong focal point when there is not much else to look at

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While it never quite became the Blackpool of the West, shingly Severn Beach sure had its heyday

The new show tackling complex issues concerning institutional racism within the context of the NHS

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Why not whip up Acorn’s plant-based paté one Meat-Free Monday?

Another idea for getting your nature fix during the dull days of winter

A cross-section of the city’s varied events scene

THEATRE

FIELD TO FORK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

HABITAT

ENTERTAINMENT MUSIC

Celebrate amour à deux, but don’t bring any preconceptions to the table, says Melissa Blease. Oysters are not compulsory, you know...

No 188

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News from local estate agents and developers

ON THE COVER Izzy Thorpe and Kate Shortman, the Bristol syncroswimming duo hoping to qualify for Tokyo 2020 (see p68). Image courtesy of beualways.com

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The duo is aiming high for GB

THIS MONTH WE’VE BEEN...

...Emma Bridgewater’s daffodil mug – a collaboration with Marie Curie that will see £5 from each sale support people living with a terminal illness, and their families.

The charity is also urgently calling for Bristol volunteers to give two hours of their time to hand out daffodil pins in return for donations to the Great Daffodil Appeal, held in March.

from the

EDITOR

• Visit mariecurie.org.uk/collect or call 0117 9247275

I

n case it wasn’t already blindingly obvious, we love Bristol and all the reasons it keeps on giving us to want to keep on living here. It’s excelling in almost all the areas – one of them artistic swimming, as illustrated by the synchro duo we’ve featured on the front cover. Scoring highly in major competitions, dedicating time to encouraging other young athletes and helping raise awareness of marine pollution (making headlines, in the process) by performing a routine in a pool full of plastic hasn’t been quite enough to satisfy Kate Shortman and Izzy Thorpe’s ambitions.

So, they’re now training hard with hopes of qualifying for this year’s Olympic Games in Tokyo. As New Year’s resolutions go, it’s a biggie. See p68 for more from them.

There are love letters in this issue: one addressed to the city from poet Annie Johansen on p16 and another to the NHS from some West Country dramatists, which is being delivered in the context of some complex community issues at the Wardrobe Theatre in Old Market (p30). Over Valentine’s weekend, the People’s Republic of Stokes Croft is also hosting an arts fair to celebrate the diversity of 21st-century love, in which you can see the work of digital illustrator Amber Phillips (p32) and, imported from the city of romance, on p38 we’ve Parisian poster boys such as Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec bringing to life the streets of Montmartre in its bohemian heyday.

In the spirit of music being the food, etc, we’ve a few words from one of the greatest singer-songwriters of her time, Carole King (p24) on how it feels to have her life story told on stage, as Beautiful heads to the Hippodrome, and if you want a little of Beethoven’s lifeblood flowing through your veins, there’s a round-up of some classical season highlights at St George’s Bristol. The venue is celebrating the 250th anniversary of the birth of the genius, as is Classic FM presenter and Ludwig expert John Suchet who, on p20, tells Emma Clegg all about the composer’s dramatic life – famously made more challenging by a difficult descent into deafness.

We’ve also got a feature on death – hear me out – which is all about our digital legacies and the need to start talking so we can break the taboo around this tricky subject and sort out how we want to be remembered when we finally say au revoir and shuffle off. Who do you trust to delete your data or curate your story?

This month’s variety show continues on p42 with Park Street’s terrific father-and-son tailoring outfit, whose ethos flies in the face of fast fashion in favour of slow, timeless style. Then, on p40, Bristol’s Ian A Anderson explains how Clifton Village first acquired its name from local folk musicians back in the 1970s, and takes some personal responsibility for the area’s increased property prices...

Dip in, dip out, or go cover-to-cover, and we’ll see you just in time for spring.

AMANDA NICHOLLS EDITOR Editor’s image by Paolo Ferla; ferlapaolo.com

@thebristolmag

10 THE BRISTOL MAGAZINE

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No 188

@thebristolmag

Image by John Blackwell

Image courtesy of beualways.com

Coveting...

Intrigued... ...By a new concept from Peter SanchezIglesias and the team behind Casamia and Paco Tapas, in the spot that formerly housed Pi Shop. All we know about The 3rd so far is that it’ll be a multi-faceted space for relaxed drinks, chef’s table dining and daytime chilling with coffee and pastries – and it’s due to open in March.

• sanchez-brothers.co.uk

Excited...

Pink Enchantment is coming to Bristol

...For the first Bristol Light Festival (28 Feb – 1 March) to showcase renowned international light artists alongside Bristol talent. Tine Bech’s Pink Enchantment will immerse those walking across Castle Bridge in an ethereal light and bursts of pink fog and there’ll be interactive musical see-saws illuminated in Queen Square, plus a giant Bristolian phrase in neon on St Augustine’s Parade, and more.

• bristollightfestival.org

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ZEITGEIST

top things to do in FEBRUARY

WITNESS Following a sell-out run in 2019, the world’s most exhilarating early career dancers from Rambert2 return to Bristol Old Vic with their latest show this month. This brand new programme features Sin, a duet by Damien Jalet and Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, created as part of their 2010 piece Babel (words). It also includes new work by Andrea Miller, a star of the New York dance scene known for “visceral, imaginative work, where dancers can seem to do the impossible”, according to Dance Magazine, and Jermaine Spivey, a dancer and choreographer best known for his standout performances with Crystal Pite’s Kidd Pivot. Triple Bill is on from 11 – 13 February, 7.30pm. Tickets from £12.

LISTEN Having built on her success in her on-screen role in Nashville, Lennon Stella has amassed an international audience for her music.

She’s heading to the Anson Rooms on 29 February as part of her European tour – after opening with 5 Seconds of Summer for The Chainsmokers tour. The music draws on Lennon’s personal experiences, from breakups to breakdowns, with ballads taking inspiration from the likes of Fleetwood Mac and Tame Impala. Tickets £19.50.

ENJOY

Much-loved Yorkshire folk duo Belinda O’Hooley and Heidi Tidow were propelled into new-found fame last year for penning the theme tune to Sally Wainwright’s critically acclaimed BBC One and HBO drama Gentleman Jack, starring Suranne Jones as Anne Lister.

This earned them global admiration, appearances on TV, Radio 4 Woman’s Hour and concerts that have sold out months in advance. Now they are heading to St George’s Bristol on 28 February, 8pm, as part of their #GentlemanJack Tour, in what promises to be an inventive and memorable night.

Tickets £16 – £20.

• lennonstella.com

• stgeorgesbristol.co.uk

GET ON YOUR BIKE Cyclists will be taking to the roads on 4 April to raise funds for St Peter’s Hospice in the Tour de Bristol, and there’s still time to sign up for either the 40k, 65k or 100k routes. Covering the South Gloucestershire countryside, with the two longer routes crossing the first Severn Bridge, riders will encounter some challenging hills, as well as witnessing the beautiful scenery of the Wye Valley and Tintern Abbey. All the money raised in sponsorship will enable the hospice to continue providing free care and support to patients and their families in Bristol and beyond.

SEE George and Martha invite Nick and Honey to join them for a nightcap. It’s late in the evening, but what do they have to lose? David Mercatali (Blue Heart, Dark Vanilla Jungle, Radiant Vermin) returns to Tobacco Factory Theatres this month to direct Edward Albee’s landmark black comedy, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?. Running from 19 February – 21 March, this co-production follows how an innocent invitation after a university faculty gathering quickly turns on its head with George and Martha’s toxic domestic games. Tickets from £12.

• tourdebristol.co.uk • tobaccofactorytheatres.com 12 THE BRISTOL MAGAZINE

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Watch the drama unfold in this take on Edward Albee’s iconic play

O’Hooley & Tidow: Hannah Webster

• bristololdvic.org.uk

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THE CITY

My

BRISTOL We meet children’s TV presenter and creative director Ricky Martin

Real big fish Bristol Aquarium has added a giant grouper (Epinephelus lanceolatus) to its coral seas display for the first time. A two-year-old female, the grouper is a protogynous hermaphrodite so will change sex in three to five years when she reaches sexual maturity.

The creatures grow by around 15cm per year (at around the same speed as human hair), reaching up to 2.7 metres. They change colour as they mature, starting out with black and yellow stripes that change to black, white and grey markings and become darker as they get older and become male.

“Sheila (as she is commonly known to us) has lived with us back-of-house for four months,” said aquarist Joe Feasey-Kemp. “We have been training her to respond to acoustic and visual targets to be fed and now she is fully trained we have put her on display. “We have all enjoyed getting to know her over the past few months, and are so proud to see her in the coral seas display – she looks so impressive! I’m looking forward to seeing her continue to change as she matures; they’re such fascinating creatures!”Joe added.

The giant grouper is from the Indo-Pacific and swims in warm, shallow waters. Initially living in mangroves when they’re younger, they move out to sea as they get bigger. One of the biggest bony fish that swim around coral reefs, they are fully protected as their numbers are dwindling, although there is insufficient data to officially classify their population stocks.

Bristol Aquarium’s coral seas display is a large warm water tank holding 250,000 litres of salt water, home to hundreds of different tropical species. Along with the coral seas, the aquarium has whole host of other displays from around the world, aiming to transport visitors on an underwater journey.

How did I end up in Bristol? I was picking a university and my mum said; “I don’t care if you’re going to uni down the road, you’re moving out!” So I thought I might as well go to Bristol. I knew nothing about the place. Man, did I luck out!

With Art Ninja, I’m essentially the worst character in my own TV show. It’s a weird mix of presenting and acting (I use that word very lightly). Making the series is pretty fun but intense. I’m writing for the first few months of the year and coming up with ‘big make’ ideas (think Art Attackstyle giant pictures) with the team. Studio time is crazy; we have about 60 makes to do along with loads of sitcom to shoot which means there’s about 12 people trapped in a rented Air BnB in Paintworks, 12 hours a day for six weeks. By the end we are like a family; probably a little too close. We’ve shot at Paintworks, Bottle Yard, the Brabazon hangar, schools, Bristol Museum, Ashton Gate (we were not allowed on the grass), even Redcliffe Caves.

I’ve worked with Aardman for about 14 years. When I was at uni, it was the end game. Being a director at Aardman was a dream and being able to fulfil that dream was amazing. Everything I do is so varied it’s hard to pull out a specific career highlight but being able to travel for CBBC on All Over The Place was a ridiculous treat. It barely feels like work.

I did away with guilty pleasures a few years ago, and by that I mean if I like something,

• bristolaquarium.co.uk

14 THE BRISTOL MAGAZINE

My studio mates are all brilliant and I’m secretly jealous of how well they know their own style and brands. My mate Dan Higginson too – he started his own media company years ago. Y’know how people do the corporate work to pay for the dream projects... but then they get bogged down in the corporate? Well he hasn’t and he kicked out a labour-of-love documentary about Dean Lane skatepark this year. Nice one.

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I like it and I’m not embarrassed about it.

I’ve got an eclectic taste in music; rock, electronica, folk and bluegrass, metal. I only just discovered Taylor Swift – really into her right now...

I tend to frequent ‘actual pubs’ like The Cori, Seamus O’Donnell’s, the Miners Arms – great after a session at Campus Pool Skatepark. As for food, Seven Lucky Gods is delish and Quay Street Diner, owned by a mate of mine, has never disappointed.

I’m freelance so I never know what’s going to happen next but I’ve got big plans to make some independent films in 2020.

If I was mayor I’d chuck a load of money into public spaces and have a jolly good go at tackling the homeless problem we have.

It’s cold out there, a lot of people tend to dehumanise people living on the streets and it’s something we’ve got to sort out.

I once had a dream I was a female Asian ice skater. I was in a competition and my trainer told me it was my turn on the ice. I tried to explain I’m not actually a female Asian ice skater and there’d been a big mistake and I don’t even know what a triple axel is. He stopped me and said; “Ricky, if you weren’t good enough, you wouldn’t be here. So get out here and enjoy yourself.”

Remarkably I did; skated really badly but came third. Got on the podium. n • Follow Ricky on Twitter: @RexMartin

Image by Jack Powley

I share a studio (which is a death-trap) in town with five amazing artists – Richt, 45RPM, Peachy Hanna, Penfold and Matt Manson and we are the most easily distracted group of people you’ve ever met – when I’m in there I’ll be editing, writing or making something until one of us leads the rest astray. Other days I’ll be working as an animator for the likes of Vans or doing kids’ telly for CBBC. There’s no such thing as a normal day.

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Bristol: Hollywood of the South West

WELLVERSED

The boom in Bristol’s film and TV industry has made the city the ‘Hollywood of the South West’, the BBC’s regional head has said. Stephanie Marshall made her comments after hotly anticipated drama The Trial Of Christine Keeler – filmed over 17 weeks in Bristol – debuted on BBC One. The six-part series is one of a number of shows filmed in the city recently, including the Agatha Christie thriller The Pale Horse and factual drama Salisbury, about the cathedral city’s Novichok poisonings.

Earlier this year, BBC One’s long-running drama Poldark came to a close after filming five series in the city, and according to Bristol Film Office figures, more than £16million was generated by filming activity in Bristol in 2018/19. Much of that was at The Bottle Yard Studios, which on its own created 485 jobs. “Bristol’s media industry has gone from strength to strength and is now the biggest production hub in Sophie Cookson as Christine Keeler the south outside of London,” said Stephanie. “TV holds up a mirror to our society and is a powerful way to spread positive messages. But before a single frame ends up on our televisions and phones, it has already provided hundreds of people with work.

“Bristol has always been well known for its natural history, factual and radio output. Now with many of the biggest, most talked about BBC dramas being filmed here, Bristol has truly become the Hollywood of the South West.”

The Trial of Christine Keeler follows the eponymous 19-year-old as she is caught up in the Profumo affair, a 1960s sex scandal that eventually brought down Prime Minister Harold Macmillan’s government. Nearly 500 people worked on the series. Executive producer Douglas Rae said it was “remarkable” that the team was able to find everything they needed in Bristol. “Bristol deserves a BAFTA for the best place to make drama,” he added, while Rebecca Ferguson, the series’ producer, said: “Filming at the Bottle Yard Studios and in Bristol has been a wonderful experience. The crew, the people of Bristol, the beauty of the city and surrounding countryside have provided Keeler with the perfect backdrop to create 1960s London. I will be a vocal advocate of filming in Bristol and dearly hope to come back soon.”

Poet Annie Johansen pens a love letter to the city

Bristol My heart beats a little faster, Since you kept me from the sea.

It’s hard to hold my interest, But Bristol; you sure got me.

You’re grungy and you’re dirty, Your history: so dark.

But chemistry is chemistry, And I can feel the spark.

There’s beauty beyond your greyness In the shape of all your art.

Sprayed upon your streets Straight from the Sprayer's heart.

The whooshing of balloons, And the beat of drum ‘n’ bass, Spin the summer soundtrack Of your crowded outside space.

You smoke all summer long And party like Kate Moss.

Capital city you might not be, But Bristol; you're the boss.

Like flickers from the flames Of balloons through your skies, This magic in your city I can see it with my eyes.

Bristol, you keep me dancing To your twisted hippy beat.

I've finally found the place To rest my itchy feet.

• bbc.co.uk

Free photography alert!

To celebrate a successful first year as Bristol’s newest cultural attraction, The Royal Photographic Society has removed entry fees to all of its exhibitions and revised its opening times to Thursday to Sunday, 10am until 5pm, with immediate effect. Having opened its doors in February 2019, it has welcomed thousands of photography enthusiasts and members of the public wanting see inspiring, thoughtful photography within the cultural attraction.

Each exhibition is accompanied by a dynamic learning programme of lectures, talks, film screenings and workshops. The building also supports the RPS’s wider education programme which includes practical workshops, courses and new educational offerings. The RPS programme of distinctions assessments, which recognise individuals’ skills across the medium, continue in the enhanced space.

The removal of entry fees will further the RPS mission statement to educate the public and inspire a passion for the art of photography. “We’re really pleased to be able to improve access to beautiful and inspirational photography, by removing the exhibition entry fee to our gallery home in Bristol,” said Mike Taylor, chief operating officer. “We are striving to share aspirational photography that provides insight, inspiring storytelling, and which tackles the issues of our time. After a fantastic first year in Bristol we look forward to welcoming new audiences through our doors to explore the wonderful world of photography.”

• rps.org

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Image: Phil Jearey

Images: BBC/Iconic

THE CITY

• If you have some poetry or creative writing that you’d like to submit for potential publication, email editor@thebristolmagazine.co.uk

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HISTORY,TRADITION & QUALITY since 1881

Kemps is a fourth generation family jeweller offering a beautiful selection of both new and pre-loved pieces

KEMPS J EWELLERS

1881

9 Calton Court, Westbury on Trym, Bristol, BS9 3DF www.kempsjewellers.com • 0117 950 5090

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Breaking point Follow us on Twitter @thebristolmag

W

e’re going through one of those periods when everything breaks. The car failed its MOT and had to have bits of metal welded onto its underside.

The washing machine packed up, then I noticed one day that the dishwasher was still running six hours after I’d put it on, on a hi-speed setting. So that had to go too.

Each of these minor disasters did come with a silver-lining moment attached; I found much better appliances than ours going for a song on Gumtree, and got to explore unfamiliar parts of Bristol with the youngest Bartleby. He might have shown a bit more enthusiasm for post-war prefabs and the like, but you can’t have everything.

A week before Christmas I was travelling for work when I got a phone call from home. Ms B had turned on the oven, only to hear a loud bang and see a puff of smoke rise from the tea cupboard – or from the socket at the back of the tea cupboard, which is next to the cooker. The power had gone off. In short, pandemonium.

“I was going to make a pie!” lamented Ms B as the kids got the cooker unplugged and the power back on.

Next day, an electrician came out and replaced the dead socket. He left, I plugged in the kettle and this time there was a bang, a flash, and a pop from somewhere in the wall. It was beginning to feel like a horror film about a house that has had enough of its lazy occupants and decides to kill them. The electrician came back, did some tests and shook his head grimly: “You’ve got a dead short.”

This, apparently, is what happens when some weak point in the circuit is overloaded and fails. Current arcs between live and neutral, er, wires and generally the situation is very bad. It’s a common problem in old houses like ours, where enthusiastic amateurs have made merry over the years. The electrician gave us two choices: spend an unknown amount of time and money looking for the fault, or spend a known amount rewiring. This amount was not small, but what choice did we have?

Our local community has always been fantastic and now this was proven once again. When I explained our predicament a friend offered to put me in touch with another electrician who would get the fault sorted, no problem. We went away for a week, staying with another friend who had basically rebuilt his house, himself, and coming back I decided to do some investigating. Despite living in our house almost 20 years I realised I had no idea how any of the pipes or cables travelled about the place. How did the hot water get to the bathroom?

No clue. And as for the electrics, we were very much of the plug-inan-extension-cord-and-forget-about-it school.

First I looked at the fuse box. Yes I could see now why the electrician had shuddered when he saw it. Dr Frankenstein may have had something similar in his workshop. Then I turned my attention to the cables that ran down and under the floor. Along the corridor was a floorboard that had clearly been pulled up before, and now I did so again to reveal dusty grey cables snaking this way and that, plus a pink hairband and a tiny pair of trousers from some diminutive doll. I followed the cables, along and down and up and around, and by the end of the evening I had a mental map of the circuit and a small collection of childhood memorabilia.

The new electrician came, and we figured out that the fault must be in the kitchen wall, probably where an enthusiastic amateur had been fiddling. He found a way to bypass it, then replaced the fuse box. Job done. Now all we need is someone to sort out the boiler, like a heating engineer. Or, better still, a magician. ■

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See more online www.thebristolmag.co.uk

Contact us: Publisher Email:

Steve Miklos steve@thebristolmagazine.co.uk

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BRIST OL MAGAZINE Bristol and Exeter House, Lower Approach, Temple Meads, Bristol BS1 6QS Telephone: 0117 974 2800 www.thebristolmagazine.co.uk © MC Publishing Ltd 2020 Disclaimer: Whilst every reasonable care is taken with all material submitted to The Bristol Magazine, the publisher cannot accept responsibility for loss or damage to such material. Opinions expressed in articles are strictly those of the authors. This publication is copyright and may not be reproduced in any form either in part or whole without written permission from the publishers.

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Defying the silence

Beethoven’s life was full of drama, closely reflected in his music. Emma Clegg talks to Beethoven expert and Classic FM presenter John Suchet ahead of six performances of Beethoven’s string quartets, which chart his descent into deafness

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f you go to a Beethoven concert, you should grip the arms of your seat. Your knuckles should be white. Beethoven is not a settling composer – he is a stimulating, invigorating, challenging composer.” John Suchet, former newscaster and reporter for ITN, who covered major world events such as the Iran revolution and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, now has a different specialism – classical music in general and Ludwig van Beethoven in particular. Indeed Suchet, who has been presenting Classic FM’s flagship morning programme since 2010, has already written six books about Beethoven.

This year Suchet is doing a 52-part series on Beethoven’s life and music on Classic FM called The Man Revealed, the biggest series ever on a single composer, which is running every weekend throughout 2020 to celebrate 250 years since the composer’s birth. As part of the celebrations Suchet will also be appearing in Bath where the Bath Festival is staging a series of six concerts of the composer’s entire cycle of 16 string quartets. Three of the concerts and an illuminating talk on Beethoven by Suchet will take place in March, with three more concerts in May during The Bath Festival.

Suchet’s fascination with Beethoven started between 30 and 40 years ago. He was himself trained in music to a high level – playing the piano, the violin in the school orchestra and the trombone in a jazz band at school – but his fascination with the music of Beethoven is less about high-brow musicology and more about the music in human terms and how it reflects the life of the man who wrote it.

“When I first got into Beethoven’s music all the books on him were very academic, very musicological,” he says. “But I can tell you why he wrote a piece, how extraordinary it was that he wrote it, what he was doing at the time.

“Beethoven’s music is massive and extraordinary if you know absolutely nothing about his life. But with Beethoven, perhaps more than with any other composer, if you name a piece and I tell you what was happening when he wrote it, I promise you, you listen to it differently.” This is what makes Suchet’s Classic FM midweek daytime show, with its audience of 2.9m listeners, so successful – he has an ability to capture the magic of composers and pieces of music that aren’t always an easy sell to the uninitiated, and to open up musical appreciation. His style of presentation has appropriately been described as a “silken line of chat, laced with informed simplicity and friendly engagement” (The Scotsman).

“Beethoven poured his life into his music. His life is also his musical biography and in particular the string

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John Suchet’s talk, Beethoven: The Man Revealed takes place on 28 March

quartets and the piano sonatas, which are much more intimate kinds of music. The quartets are in three blocks – early, middle and late – and in those quartets you can chart Beethoven’s descent into deafness, you can chart his ill health, you can chart his struggle with his nephew (he took his sister-in-law to court, arguing to get custody of his nephew, finally winning and then discovering what it was like to be a single parent when he was losing his hearing).

“If people know anything about Beethoven, it is that he is the one that went deaf. And honestly his progression into deafness – which was a slow, gradual decline lasting around 20 years – is there. You can hear the pain of it in his music.”

How much, therefore, did Beethoven’s deafness define the music he wrote? He didn’t start losing his hearing until his mid-twenties, by which time he was in Vienna, had met Mozart and played to him, and was already a renowned musician and composer. “Before he started losing his hearing he was seen as a natural successor to Mozart,” says Suchet. “Already we’re talking total genius, and already he’s breaking the rules – there are things that he does in all his musical forms that no

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one had done before. So whatever happened he would have gone on to be a great composer.

“But as that deafness takes hold in middle age, Beethoven retreats into himself, so the late quartets which we are going to hear in Bath are his profound musical statement. We would not have had those in the form that they are without his deafness.”

Three of the giants of classical music, Mozart, Beethoven and Haydn, were contemporaries. Beethoven (then 17) and Mozart (then in his early thirties) met, Mozart recognised his talent and said he’d take him on as a pupil – although in fact this didn’t happen because Beethoven had to return home to Bonn to his mother who was terminally ill with consumption. Four years later, when Beethoven returned to Vienna to work with Haydn, Mozart was dead.

“So Beethoven never actually got to study with Mozart,” says Suchet. “Which I think was a good thing – he was a decade and a half younger so he would have been in awe of Mozart who might have tamed that wild spirit slightly.”

These three composers were very different in their temperament and musical styles: Haydn traditional, unassuming and pleasing; Mozart expressive, playful and eccentric; Beethoven challenging, difficult and uncompromising. And compared to his two great contemporaries, Beethoven’s output was relatively small. Beethoven wrote nine symphonies, Mozart 41 and Haydn 104. The same goes The Carducci String Quartet

The Bath Festivals Beethoven String Quartets cycle will be performed by two of the finest string quartets in the world, the Carducci String Quartet in March and the Heath Quartet in May. The early quartets were written when Ludwig van Beethoven was in his twenties – and they sparkle with youthful exuberance. These lead on to the symphonic Razumovsky quartets of his middle period. His late quartets, written in the final years of his life when he was profoundly deaf, offer an extraordinary mixture of grandeur, intimacy and beauty, with intimations of mortality and the sublime.

The first three Bath Festivals concerts will take place on 27 March, 7.30pm, 28 March, 11am, and 29 March, 11am, all at The Guildhall, Bath. The final three concerts will take place on 22 May, 7.30pm, 23 May, 11am, and 24 May, 11am, all at the Assembly Rooms, Bath. Tickets are £12, £26 and £35.

Concessions are half price. Beethoven: The Man Revealed with John Suchet, takes place on 28 March at 3pm at The Guildhall, Bath. Tickets £10.

John Suchet’s show on Classic FM is on weekdays, from 9am – 1pm.

• bathfestivals.org.uk

for the string quartets, keyboard concertos and operas. For Haydn and Mozart composition came naturally. “If you look at Mozart and Haydn’s manuscript papers,” explains Suchet, “the original autographed manuscripts of their work, they are relatively clean.

Mozart never crossed anything out – he got it right first time. If you look at Beethoven’s manuscript, it’s an absolute struggle with scratchings out and he tears the paper he gets so angry. So although he was a god-given genius, he struggled when he composed.

...His progression into deafness – a slow, gradual decline lasting around 20 years – is there. You can hear the pain of it in his music...

“One thing you could not say about Beethoven was that he was modest,” laughs Suchet. “He knew how good he was, and that was despite the fact that he encountered a lot of opposition in Vienna. A lot of people told him ‘you can’t do it that way, that’s never going to work, that’s ridiculous.’ Audiences used to go along to his concerts to see what was going to happen next, because you could never tell. And so many of his pieces were met with a confused reaction.

The Eroica Symphony, for example, famously begins with two striking tonic chords and this had never been done before. “Both Mozart and Haydn begin their works quite politely, often with a little preamble. Beethoven just bangs straight in, so it gets your attention right away. Interestingly the opening notes of The Eroica is not a theme, it’s a motif. It is just four crisp notes and that stunned them as it stuns us.

“The Eroica was premiered in 1803, so it was the turn of the century, a new century, and hailed a new way of doing things. In bar seven it goes down to a bottom C,” explains Suchet, “which is the wrong note in the wrong place at the wrong time in the wrong key, and Beethoven’s Viennese audience would have been stunned by this.

He used to say, when he met criticism, ‘This music is not for you, it is for future generations.’

“So he didn’t doubt for a moment what he had, even though it was, to a certain extent, rejected in his own lifetime.”

...Beethoven used to say, when he met criticism, “This music is not for you – it is for future generations”...

Suchet recollects a time when he was a reporter at ITN in the mid to late 1970s, in a period when the first Sony Walkmans were available. “Suddenly for the first time you could carry your music with you. I remember getting a late-night ferry to Beirut where the Lebanese civil war was raging and I had Beethoven’s Eroica Symphony in my pocket. And I blasted it into my ears as the ferry steamed me towards the city at war.”

It’s clear that Beethoven was absolutely right; he was writing his powerful music for the ears of future generations. So be sure to squeeze in a listen to his musical autobiography in some form soon – perhaps his 16 string quartets in March and May, in Bath, or (see also p22) through celebrations at St George’s Bristol this season. n THEBRISTOLMAG.CO.UK

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MUSIC | CLASSICAL

ALL OVER BEETHOVEN As celebrations take place across the world, St George’s Bristol is marking the 250th anniversary of the birth of Ludwig van Beethoven with a series of classical events in 2020

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onsidered one of the greatest musical geniuses of all time for innovative melodious creations that have delighted audiences for centuries, Beethoven was a prolific composer who wrote nine symphonies, 32 piano sonatas, one opera, five piano concertos and chamber works including some ground-breaking string quartets. Making his achievements all the more impressive, his personal life was marked by a struggle against deafness, and some of his most important works were composed during the last 10 years of his life when he was unable to hear. St George’s new-season programme is paying homage to his talent by profiling some of the world’s best pianists, orchestras and quartets, and piano works by Beethoven are centre stage in February while symphonies are celebrated next month with the help of BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Bristol Metropolitan Orchestra and Aurora Orchestra.

Celebrations run through to May when Bristol Classical Players and Bristol Cabot Choir perform Symphony No 9 ‘Choral’ – at the premiere of which, it is said, Beethoven could not even hear his audience’s thunderous applause. The world-renowned Takacs Quartet round off the programme with Beethoven’s last string quartet and last major work. Here’s what to expect from a few of the upcoming highlights.

Aurora will perform a symphony entirely from memory

James Lisney, Beethoven’s Late Piano Sonata Op 110, 5 February Provocative, satisfying piano music as James Lisney continues Endgame, a series of four recitals that focus upon the late works of Beethoven as well as Haydn, Schubert and Chopin. Beethoven’s Sonata in A Flat, Opus 110, is one of the most tightly integrated and celebrated works in the keyboard repertoire, displaying extraordinary tenderness and humanity. A sudden tragedy imposes upon the opening idyll; the conclusion represents a hard-fought triumph over this existential threat.

BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Beethoven’s Eroica, 15 March Beethoven’s epoch-making Eroica symphony is paired here with Richard Strauss’s extraordinary lament for Germany at the end of the Second World War. Writing for the lush texture of 23 solo strings, Strauss weaves Beethoven’s funeral march into Metamorphosen’s closing bars, fusing Germanic musical eras with great emotional effect. Rising star Welsh soprano, Rhian Lois, opens with Beethoven’s dramatic concert aria Ah! Perfido (Ah! Deceiver) – a showpiece work that Beethoven produced in his mid-20s.

BBC National Orchestra of Wales takes the stage on 15 March

Aurora Orchestra, Beethoven’s Pastoral, 24 March Showcasing the extraordinary versatility of St George’s orchestra-inresidence, Aurora’s striking programme includes a symphony performed entirely from memory, without a manuscript in sight; a work of orchestral theatre from the incomparable imagination of Harrison Birtwistle and a collaboration with rising star pianist Yeol Eum Son. Bristol Classical Players & Bristol Cabot Choir, 9th Symphony, 9 May This mighty work has been used to mark numerous world events (notably the fall of the Berlin Wall) and since been adopted as the anthem of Europe. Inspired by Schiller’s Ode to Joy, Beethoven produced a masterpiece that has influenced every composer since and which pointed the way for countless new directions in music. ■ Takacs Quartet • To book tickets visit stgeorgesbristol.co.uk or call 0845 4024001 22 THE BRISTOL MAGAZINE

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THEATRE | INTERVIEW

LIFE OF A KING Telling the story of one of the most successful songwriters of all time, the Tony, Olivier and Grammy award-winning musical Beautiful: The Carole King Musical arrives at Bristol Hippodrome next month, following its run in London’s West End. The prolific musician tells us about how it feels to have her life story documented on stage

• 25 – 29 February, Bristol Hippodrome; atgtickets.com 24 THE BRISTOL MAGAZINE

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Image by Craig Sugden

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arole King’s now iconic 1971 album Tapestry was released when she was just 29 years old, and yet by this time she already had a string of over 100 chart hits written with Gerry Goffin, her former husband and songwriting partner in the 1960s. These included The Loco-Motion and Will You Love Me Tomorrow, songs since covered by the likes of The Shirelles, Kylie Minogue and Amy Winehouse. Beautiful: The Carole King Musical offers the chance to peek inside King’s early life and the writing process of her legendary duo alongside their fellow songwriters Cynthia Weil and Barry Mann.

“I was actually there for an early reading of the show and it reached a climactic and emotional moment within my life,” says the six-time Grammy-winner. “At that moment I really began to realise that yes, this show was going to be great, however I knew I couldn’t stay for the second half of the reading...” Despite the show telling the story of her early years, from teenage sensation to solo performer of iconic status, King didn’t actually see the show until several months in. “I wasn’t sure I wanted to see it initially, as it is my own past,” she remembers, but having heard from friends and family how much they loved the production she eventually ventured into the theatre. “Gerry and my daughter, Sherry, said to me ‘Mom you’ve just gotta go see it’ so I did, and I was blown away.”

So why has the musical proven so popular and resonated with audiences of all ages some 60 years since many of these songs were originally released? “I suppose it’s because to many people the music you hear in the show was the soundtrack of their generation,” King explains, “but then those people have since played these tracks to their children and grandchildren and so new generations are enjoying a sense of ownership over these songs. The show contains songs like You’ve Got A Friend that I wrote many years ago but are still sung today, and hopefully still connect with people. The show really is a testament to the music, but the book is so good, as well as how it all comes together with the lighting, set and sound.”

King is renowned for understating her remarkable success, and despite having written her first number-one hit by the time she was 17 years old, still didn’t anticipate becoming a performer herself. “We were writing enough songs to pay our mortgage,” she says in her 2012 autobiography, playing down the massive catalogue of top tunes she has written over the years. When pushed to acknowledge her talent, she says; “Looking back on my childhood I guess you could say there was an element of being a prodigy but I like to think I was given a gift with music. But I have studied hard and I like to think that I’m smart and I use my brain. I hope that comes across when people see Beautiful on tour in the UK”.

The UK holds a special place in King’s heart as it’s where she joined the cast on their opening night. “Being at the West End premiere of the show was incredible,” she says. “I didn’t attend the Broadway opening night performance, so it was particularly special to see the show in London. It’s always a bit surreal to see people you know, and people you knew, embodied so well by performers on stage, but really wonderful at the same time. I love watching people come and see them forget about their cares and troubles for two hours and 40 minutes.

“It’s a wonderful feeling. Beautiful is such a terrific show and I hope audiences will love it as it tours the UK in 2020 as much as they did when I sat in the auditorium in London with them then.” ■

The show follows the life of the hit songwriter

The gifted King joined the cast for their West End opening night

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LOCAL | EVENTS

WHAT’S ON IN FEBRUARY Lady Nade will be gigging at St George’s

See Olga Koch at Spielman Theatre

Multi-instrumentalist Emily Magpie

Living Spit’s Swan Lake until 9 February, times vary, Tobacco Factory Theatres The most famous water-based avian ballet ever performed reaches unimaginable heights with Living Spit and two real-life ballet dancers. Swan Lake – normally pretty long, high-brow and expensive. Well, not any more!

Theatre Orchard and Living Spit have teamed up to make the smallest, snappiest ballet ever performed (probably). From £12; tobaccofactorytheatres.com Bristol SMEs say NO to Cancer 4 February, 6pm, Ashton Gate Stadium To mark World Cancer Day, a black-tie dinner, hosted by television presenter Jeff Brazier, is being held to raise funds for Cancer Research UK. The event will include a drinks reception, three-course meal, entertainment, music, auction, raffle and networking opportunities. The fundraiser will coincide with the publication of a Calendar Girlsinspired calendar featuring 26 local men and women, who aim to raise £20,000. Tickets from £70 via Eventbrite; cancerresearchuk.org/get-involved Endgame II 5 February, 7.30pm, St George’s Bristol Pianist James Lisney continues his Endgame series of recitals which focus on the late piano works of Haydn, Beethoven, Schubert and Chopin. Expect provocative, intriguing and endlessly satisfying music. £12 – £20; stgeorgesbristol.co.uk Return to Heaven 5 – 8 February, 7.30pm, Tobacco Factory Theatres The multi award-winning Mark Bruce Company bring their flair for vivid storytelling (Dracula, The Odyssey, Macbeth) to a 26 THE BRISTOL MAGAZINE

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dark new captivating tale drawn from popular culture and ancient Egyptian myth. Dance theatre at its most potent. From £12; tobaccofactorytheatres.com Art Battle 6 February, 7pm, The Fleece The live competitive painting event Art Battle returns to Bristol, offering artists the chance to battle it out over who can create the best piece of work in 20 minutes. Could you take a blank canvas and make it into something special under time constraints? Register as a participant at artbattle.com/artists or pop along as a spectator and cheer everyone on.

The audience will vote for their favourite and there will be silent auction to take the works home. All ages welcome. Bar and refreshments will be available. £5 – £10; artbattle.com Winter Lecture: Book of Humans 6 February, 7.30pm, Priory Road Lecture Theatre, University of Bristol We like to think of ourselves as exceptional beings, but are we really any more special than other animals? Scientist and broadcaster Adam Rutherford will explore how many of the things once considered to be exclusively human are not: we are not the only species that communicates, makes tools, utilises fire, or has sex for reasons other than to make new versions of ourselves. Entry is on a first-come basis; bristolmuseums.org.uk Exultate Singers – Saxultate!

8 February, 7.30pm, St George’s Bristol Exultate Singers are joined by Australian saxophonist Amy Dickson for a concert of spellbinding music for choir and saxophone.

This will be a unique, engaging concert featuring a range of music from traditional English folk songs to brand new commissions. £12 – £20; stgeorgesbristol.co.uk No 188

Lady Nade 8 February, 1.30pm, St George’s Bristol Alternative folk-pop-jazz balladeer Lady Nade has been quietly making a name for herself in Bristol and beyond in the last few years. She has a tender, powerful, velveteen voice, a knack for memorable melodies and a talent for creating songs brimming with heart and soul. She will be performing some of her recent songs and will share her story. £7.50; stgeorgesbristol.co.uk Yoga Brunch Club 9 February, 10.45am, Left Handed Giant Brewpub Experience this yoga pop-up session in the Finzels Reach brewery. Start your morning with an hour-long yoga class on the brand new top floor of the brewery, led by Clem Balfour, before being treated to a sample of LHG signature beers or kombucha. Mission Pizza will be serving up a vegetarian and vegan pizza buffet. All levels welcome. All yoga mats and props provided. £26; yogabrunchclub.com John Bercow: Unspeakable 10 February, 7pm – 8pm, Waterstones John Bercow was elected as the MP for Buckingham in 1997 and became the Speaker of the House in 2009. In the last decade, he has presided over one of the most tumultuous periods in parliamentary history as MPs have contended with the 2010 coalition government, austerity and the EU referendum.

Bercow’s prominence during the Brexit debate gave him a national and European profile.

Beyond the issue of Brexit (which he recently said is “the biggest foreign policy mistake in the postwar period”) he has spoken often about democratising parliament and holding the government to account. His new memoir Unspeakable includes his verdicts on figures

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EDITOR’S PICK...

AFTER HOURS: SEX (18+) 14 FEBRUARY, 6.30PM – 10PM, WE THE CURIOUS

If candlelight dinners and red roses really aren't your thing, you might prefer a very different kind of Valentine's at We The Curious... This is an evening just for grown-ups, with some intriguing activities around the science of sex. Expect a pop-up dissection lab for exploring sexual reproduction in flowering plants; an ornamental dildo workshop for testing your creative skills as part of a tinkering space take-over (please note: these are just for show!); a pan-species peepshow featuring everything from necking giraffes to the rather forward bonobo ‘handshake’ and bizarre mating rituals from the animal kingdom; plus The Body Scent Booth. Take a sniff and consider how your sense of smell might influence your choice of partner.

There’ll also be frozen cocktails, and access to the exhibits and planetarium for a guided tour of the glittering night sky.

including Tony Blair, David Cameron, Theresa May and Boris Johnson. Join him for a candid conversation with Andrew Kelly, director of Festival of Ideas, about his eventful political career, and the future of democracy and politics. £25.50, a single ticket includes a copy of Unspeakable; ideasfestival.co.uk Sarah Dunant 11 February, 8pm, Redland Hall, Redmaids’ High “A truly cultured woman is as rare as the phoenix” – Isabelle d’Este.

In this event, the author and broadcaster Sarah Dunant gives an illustrated lecture. £6 suggested donation on the door; theartssocietybristol.org.uk Mid Life 12 February – 8 March, times vary, The Weston Studio, Bristol Old Vic Claire was the South East of England Disco Dancing Champion in 1982. Surely she can’t be menopausal? Jacqui’s busy looking after the grandkids and keeping an eye on her ex-partner’s mum but there’s some stuff she needs to get off her chest. Karen lives alone by the sea.

She’s a survivor. These are menopausal women – unpaid carers, up-allnighters, emotional load-bearers, school-runners and piece-pickeruppers. Join them as they find a way through the loss, despair, frustration, freedom, joy and possibility of the middle years. £12; bristololdvic.org.uk Open Evening 12 February, 6.30pm – 8.30pm, The College of Naturopathic Medicine The UK’s leading training provider in a range of natural therapies specialises in helping individuals build careers in the fields of nutrition, naturopathy, acupuncture, herbal medicine, homeopathy, Natural Chef and Vegan Natural Chef. Its free open evening offers a chance for you to do something life-changing by improving your health or changing Continued on page 28

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LOCAL | EVENTS

Meet Madam Butterfly at Bristol Old Vic

Counterfeit play SWX on 24 February

career and helping others. CNM has a 22-year track record training successful natural health practitioners in class and online. 80% of graduates are practising. Free; https://bit.ly/36kIdK6 Unlikely Love Stories: The Women Who Fell in Love (or Lust), 13 February, 6pm – 8pm, Arnos Vale Cemetery Forbidden love. Doomed love. Childhood sweethearts, an abducted heiress, and the lady writer who enjoyed a menage-a-trois with an acclaimed rock-climber and his wife. Hear of the Bristol women embedded in truly remarkable love stories in days gone by. Talk led by author Jane Duffus. £8; arnosvale.org.uk Valentine’s Day Dining 14 February, Harvey Nichols Enjoy four courses created and a glass of champagne. Dishes include quail with rose and a pomegranate dressing; roast breast of guinea fowl with guinea fowl Kiev, pommes purée and green butter sauce; chocolate, raspberry and pistachio choux. £50 per person; harveynichols.com Valentine’s Magic 14 February, 6pm – 11pm, Bristol Museum and Art Gallery Looking for something a little bit different this Valentine’s Day? Enjoy an after dark viewing of Bristol Museum’s headline exhibition ‘Do you believe in magic?’ with some live acoustic music, before treating you and your significant other to a romantic dinner in the grand Wills Hall. £15pp for exhibition and wine, £37.50pp with dinner; bristolmuseums.org.uk Puccini’s Madam Butterfly 14 & 15 February, 7.30pm, Bristol Old Vic Olivier Award-winning OperaUpClose return with a new English version of Puccini’s Madam Butterfly. A young woman is abandoned by the man for whom she sacrificed everything. But she is stronger than anyone imagined… From £12; bristololdvic.org.uk 28 THE BRISTOL MAGAZINE

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After Hours at the RWA 20 February, 7pm – 9pm, RWA Grab your friends (and your free drink) and enjoy a colourful event with catwalk fashion, an African pop-up shop, music by DJ Devolicious of Booty Bass and four exhibitions to explore. £5/£8; rwa.org.uk Olga Koch: If/Then 23 February, 8pm, Spielman Theatre, Tobacco Factory Theatres A brand new hour from the 2018 Edinburgh Comedy Award Best Newcomer nominee.

Following Olga’s BBC Radio 4 special, the acclaimed stand-up tells a love story through the medium of computer programming (which she studied at university, and, like, barely ever brings up). In her feminist investigation into what happens when we can’t separate love and technology, Olga will teach you how to code and explore what happens when our expectations for love, happiness and Michael Bublé no longer compute. £12; tobaccofactorytheatres.com

Women in Science Fiction and Fantasy 25 February, 7.30pm, Foyles An evening celebrating female geekery and science fiction creativity, with four exceptional writers and SFF critics: Emma Geen, Cheryl Morgan, Emma Newman and Liz Williams. In conversation with Kate Macdonald of Handheld Press, they will unknot the bonds of unknowing to illuminate the best of feminist SFF. £6/£8; ideasfestival.co.uk Emily Magpie 27 February, 8pm, St George’s Bristol Multi-instrumentalist Emily Magpie fuses folk, electronica and pop to create a spellbinding mix. Acclaimed by BBC 6 Music and having supported the likes of This Is The Kit, she’ll be performing and talking about tracks from her new album and aiming to enchant listeners with the pure, heartfelt beauty of her music. £7.50; stgeorgesbristol.co.uk

Janey Godley 23 February, 8pm, Redgrave Theatre Janey Godley and her soup pot are on tour.

Hot from her recent appearances on Have I Got News for You and Breaking the News, the Fringe Festival sell-out with more than 20 years’ experience of performing awardwinning comedy, Janey is excited to bring her hilarious new show to audiences up and down the country. £17; redgravetheatre.com

Ralph Hoyle: Rococo Silver 27 February, 9.30am – 2pm, Bristol Golf Club Ralph is a member of The Silver Society, founded in 1958 to widen the appreciation of work in silver. He will be talking about his own collection of Rococo silver at this study day considering the adventures of the owners and makers. Coffee break and finger buffet lunch included. £44 per guest by prior booking, Bristol Golf Club, Blackhorse Hill; studydaysecs@theartssociety-bristol.org.uk

Palaye Royale & Counterfeit 24 February, 7pm – 11pm, SWX Bristol Self-described fashion-art rock band Palaye Royale mix grandiose modern alt-pop with gritty guitar rock that, at times, recalls both glam and Brit-pop. The Las Vegas-based indie trio developed a grassroots following thanks to their YouTube savvy and early self-released singles. Four-piece Counterfeit have recently announced that they are to support the Canadian rockers, making their way around the UK before wrapping things up at Bristol’s SWX. £16.50; swxbristol.com

Akram Khan’s Chotto Xenos 28 February – 1 March, times vary, Bristol Old Vic How does war begin? And how does it end? It depends on who is telling the story. Inspired

by Akram Khan’s award-winning final fulllength solo XENOS, Chotto Xenos is a captivating dance production that takes young audiences back in time, exploring the often forgotten and untold stories of First World War colonial soldiers, in order to shine light on our present and future. From £12; bristololdvic.org.uk n

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THEATRE

Behind the blue curtain

Photography by Steve Tanner

A new show at The Wardrobe Theatre in Old Market is tackling complex issues concerning institutional racism in the context of the National Health Service

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gainst the backdrop of ‘Brexit Britain’, the latest play from Cornwall-based Pipeline Theatre takes a look at our muchloved NHS and the complexities, and often uncomfortable truths, faced when taboos are confronted by reality. With the health service at the centre of political debate and emblematic of the country’s continued reliance on labour and talent from the waves of migration into Britain, the play forces audiences to consider the impact of the individuals who help keep it going, asking what home and belonging mean in today’s uncertain landscape.

Drip Drip Drip presents a microcosm where an NHS care team finds itself treating an alt-right Islamophobe and disgraced academic, who also happens to be terminally ill and is desperately clinging on to his own sense of entitlement as well as his beliefs. Pipeline Theatre, known for “indelible” characters and immersive design, has set out to dissect ideas of care and cruelty with humour and poignancy, busting taboos while offering a love letter to the NHS, and during the creative process has collaborated with medical experts, academics, healthcare workers and support workers within Muslim and refugee communities.

“Brexit, Trump, immigration, refugees – language is thrown around without care,” says the show’s writer, Jon Welch, who has taken as his starting point seemingly binary debates. “How easy it is to shout one’s loyalties through the consequence-free, 360-degree trumpet-cacophony of social media. But when we actually come face-to-face with the ‘other’, what happens when a human being is revealed? Particularly when, as in hospital, the stakes are so high.”

Jon began looking at the emergence of what seemed to him to be a new world order due to the likes of austerity, divisive leaders and the result of the EU referendum, and how complex arguments had seemingly turned into “ill-tempered stand-offs between tribes”.

“Supposedly progressive, multi-cultural, intellectually elitist ‘citizens of nowhere’ on one side,” says Jon, “and, on the other, those who have been spat out as the collateral damage of free-market and globalised venture capitalism – citizens of former ‘somewheres’, whose ‘somewhere’ has been abandoned by the state, taken over by Jeff Bezos and Betfred and lost its cultural heart – and sometimes overwhelmed by what they perceive to be unmanaged immigration.

“Within that, there is, however, clearly another kind of collateral damage going on, and that is to different races, religions and ethnic minorities in our society – the hostile environment, the Windrush scandal, our failure to bring thousands of lost child refugees over from Calais, Islamophobia, anti-semitism, the new and abhorrent sense of 30 THE BRISTOL MAGAZINE

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voiced racism being somehow given top-down legitimacy.”

When deciding on a setting in which to look at these themes, the choice of the NHS – one of the most multi-ethnic employers in our country and a true melting pot, where arguments about the ‘contribution’ made by immigrants become unnecessary – was a nobrainer for Jon. “We firstly spoke to a group of NHS workers from our local area – a mix of nurses, hospital doctors, midwives, health visitors, specialist nurses, GPs (working and retired). We barely had to ask a question – once they’d started unpacking, after three hours, we had to stop them. There was a lot of sadness, anger, and in truth a sense of hopelessness. This was in late 2018. We came up with a line: even gallows humour is at death’s door.

“The major topics were: under-funding, overwork, lack of resources, beds, staff shortages, demoralisation, the cost implications of an increasingly ageing population, the endless fear of litigation, the sheer weight of paperwork, systems that didn’t work or actively endangered patients’ lives, and the lack of work-life balance. Obviously we knew we weren’t writing a play exclusively about these issues – we don’t do pure agit-prop – however, it made for a really visceral backdrop for the story.

The workplace stress is almost an extra character. Add into this instances of racism, and the situation can become toxic.”

For this angle, Jon and the crew spoke to many others with relevant real-life insight, among them Dr. Nadeem Moghal, a former consultant paediatric nephrologist and now a senior fellow at the Nuffield Trust.

“Through them we were able to get an understanding of how, sometimes, the working environment in a hospital can be structurally racist, particularly when racism (from patient to carer, for example) isn’t called out, and when the careworker is left unsupported.

“Nadeem has called the NHS (in its structural hierarchy) a working model of colonialist Britain; he spoke of a former colleague who wouldn’t promote people simply on the basis of how ‘unpronounceable’ their names might seem. All this left us with a fine line to tread: we didn’t want the play to be a take-down of the NHS but, at the same time, policy is causing people on the ground to be under strain. Beyond this we held a funded R&D period with minority ethnic actors, dramaturg and healthcare workers in the room, which (especially for a theatre company made up of white people) was vital, and – in many ways – life-changing.” ■ • Pipeline Theatre’s Drip Drip Drip runs 19 & 20 February at The Wardrobe Theatre; pipelinetheatre.com

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ART | EXHIBITION

MODERN LOVE The People’s Republic of Stokes Croft is hosting an arts fair celebrating the diversity of 21st-century love and including the work of Bristol-based digital artist Amber Phillips

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specialising in digital print in textile design in ou can always rely on the PRSC to put 2016, Amber began drawing herself and her their own stamp on an event, and this sister digitally on Photoshop using a month sees the local body’s take Windows Surface Pro. She recorded the on Valentine’s Day through process and uploaded it to social media, a free fair featuring resulting in dozens of messages from performances, market stalls and creative friends of friends, families and activities. The theme of the inaugural different communities in Bristol February event is “a celebration of the asking for portraits as Christmas, beautiful diversity of 21st-century birthday, wedding and anniversary love and a rejection of the lazy presents. Creating her own path has commercialism of red roses and the taken Amber on all sorts of idealisation of monogamous, adventures, including a collaboration heterosexual couplings” but the in Australia with a fashion designer, organisation is planning to make family commissions in New the fair a monthly treat.

Zealand, and creating a poster for Friday 14 February will see the the homeless charity Caring in opening of the art exhibition and Bristol, as well as an illustration to live music from Rita Lynch, Troy support women’s charity StandTall Ellis and other Bristol faces, Women and recently work for mental including an open mic and jam health speaker Tom Watson – creating an session, and confirmed artists illustration for his podcast and Project include but are not limited to DNT, Get A Grip. “I love creating artwork that Bev Milward, Marta Zubieta, Colin will help, support or benefit people in Moody, Beatriz Leonardo and Mr Sleven, with some way,” says Amber. “What I find so a guest appearance from the Order of exciting about my work is I get new Perpetual Indulgence. The art show will couples, families and friends telling me continue during the daytime on 15 their story, why they want the drawing and February, with a t-shirt and bag stencilling what it means to them. The drawings I will workshop (£5 if you bring your own tee or “I was commissioned to create an anniversary illustration for these be exhibiting for the PRSC exhibition bag), a free community paint jam with the lovely two. This piece represents modern love in the way that this represent today’s modern love through its Bristol Women’s Mural Collective and stalls generation’s gay and lesbian couples now have the right to celebrate diversity and acceptance.” ■ showcasing china and prints by PRSC, their relationship through marriage.” ceramics and painting by Sarma Krumins • Follow Amber on Instagram @amberp_illustrator or visit her website and original digital illustrations by Amber Phillips. amberillustrator.com. Modern Love, PRSC Arts Fair at The Space, 14 After graduating from Manchester Metropolitan University and & 15 February; prsc.org.uk/event/modern-love-the-space

“I created this illustration for Pride and I thought it would fit perfectly with the theme of modern love. The birds represent freedom and, of course, their colours are organised to fit the rainbow of the Pride flag.”

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“I collaborated with two professional contemporary dancers, Deepraj Singh and Nozomi Kishimoto, who were choreographing a dance piece about love and relationships, and went to a rehearsal so I could capture them in a drawing.”

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EXHIBITIONS

STATE OF THE ART Oceans Exhibition, Alchemy 198, until 6 February

A walrus relaxes atop an ice floe beside Sjettebreen glacier in Svalbard

Image © Denis Sinyakov/Greenpeace

The Downstairs Gallery will be hosting an exhibition of ocean-based imagery taken during the Greenpeace ship Esperanza’s epic trip from the Arctic to the Antarctic, to reveal the wonders that lie beneath the surface of our oceans and confront the threats they face, including overfishing, deep sea mining and pollution.

Photography includes that of Denis Sinyakov and Shane Cross and visitors have a unique opportunity to explore the oceans via a special virtual reality experience, along with a map of the pole-to-pole voyage. The Greenpeace mission is to secure a global ocean treaty, agreed at the UN, to protect the oceans that lie outside national waters, and at Alchemy 198, visitors can send their own message urging the Prime Minister to send a high-ranking minister to the final round of treaty negotiations while younger visitors can colour in special Greenpeace posters.

The exhibition will end with a quiz at 7.30pm on 6 February – entry fees of £3 will go towards Greenpeace campaigns.

• alchemy198.co.uk

Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2019, M Shed, until 4 May

One of our most favourite images, by Ralf Schneider

Dramatic images showcasing the most arresting and spectacular sides of our natural world. This year’s competition attracted more than 48,000 entries from young, old, professional and amateur photographers from 100 countries, all helping to raise awareness of the beauty and fragility of the world around us. The photographs have been selected for their creativity, originality and technical excellence – everything from atmospheric work by a budding teenager, to haunting depictions of humanity’s interference with nature in Texas, and an adaptable racoon poking its head out of the windshield of a 1970s Ford Pinto House of God by Jo Nathan on a deserted farm in Canada.

• bristolmuseums.org.uk

Jo Nathan: Outside In(side) Out, Other Worlds Are Possible, until 8 February Jo Nathan tries to capture his sensory and emotional responses to a particular place at a specific moment – a place that excites and inspires in some way. “I have developed a process through which I make a series of ‘blind’ monochrome charcoal drawings in situ that express my response to the place,” says Jo. “(This means that I don’t look at the drawings as I make them, thus interrupting the critical feedback loop and allowing a more spontaneous and uncensored act of mark-making to take place.) These drawings, together with my memory of the experience, create a starting point and structure for the production of abstract oil paintings in the studio. Sometimes the paintings remain true to their origin and sometimes other forms and meanings emerge through the process of painting. My hope is to create paintings that are layered and textured enough to do justice to my original experience of place, while remaining sufficiently ambiguous and abstract in their form to allow the viewer to project and discover their own meanings and forms in the image.”

• facebook.com/otherworldsarepossible

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EXHIBITIONS Initial I with Witch by Eric Gill

Do You Believe In Magic? Bristol Museum, until 19 April This major winter exhibition features over 200 objects and stories that reveal how magic has been used to heal, hunt and harm across the world. From ancient uses of witchcraft, to belief in the power of gods and ancestors, it explores the complex intersection between magic, science and religion. Extraordinary artefacts have been selected from the museum’s collections, including European works of art, North American shamanic artefacts, delicately preserved plants, beautiful clothing and spiritual figurines. Through Ancient Egyptian amulets, Mexican charms and items collected from the altar of a practising witch, it uncovers ways of understanding worlds beyond our own. At the end of the exhibition, visitors are asked to decide where they stand on the spectrum of magic, science and religion. The points are mapped onto the floor to give an overall insight into what Bristol believes.

• bristolmuseums.org.uk Liminal State, from the series Strange Land by Cody Cobb

Living Abstraction: Carl Melegari & Hannah Woodman, Clifton Contemporary Art, 8 – 29 February A new collection of uniquely powerful works by Bristol artist Carl Melegari, complemented by a series of richly evocative winter scenes by renowned Cornish landscape artist Hannah Woodman. Creating a tangible sense of life and individuality, Carl’s deeply textured paintings almost encase his figures in pigment, striking a balance between the human form and semiabstraction. The spontaneous quality of drips and layers seem to liberate character and presence from each subject, while revelling in the process of painting itself.

• cliftoncontemporaryart.co.uk Winter Road, Dartmoorby Hannah Woodman

International Photography Exhibition 162, Royal Photographic Society, 15 February – 22 March Selected from a worldwide open call and curated by some of the most influential people in photography today, this edition includes stark landscapes made during periods of extended solitude, alongside images created using pinhole cameras (made from apples) which celebrate community orchards. Spirituality, family, identity, and inclusion are some of the powerful narratives explored, reflecting the concerns of the modern world. A series of talks and workshops will be programmed during February and March.

• rps.org

Nikki by Cara Romero

Pattern, Rainmaker Gallery, until 29 February Native American artists explore the presence of pattern in Indigenous cultures. Drawing inspiration from nature and traditional art forms such as pottery, weaving, porcupine quillwork, beadwork and textiles, each creates contemporary works on paper or canvas that incorporate pattern in intriguing ways. The central focus is the recent work of Northern Cheyenne printmaker Jordan Ann Craig whose serigraphs present intricate yet simple repeating patterns with titles such as RedOrange Dyed Quills and Buckskin Print: Lazy Stitch Rows.

Chemehuevi fine art photographer Cara Romero constructs photographic portraits of Indigenous women, merging the female body with ancient pottery designs and vintage Navajo weavings. In the drawings of Potawatomi artist Jason Wesaw are carefully chosen single colours describing simple shapes with personal references to healing and ceremony.

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ART | PHOTOGRAPHY

Absence & presence: notes from Iran Head to Arnolfini this month to see how the work of Bristol documentary photographer, film maker and curator Amak Mahmoodian is crossing great distances and reaching through history

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• Zanjir by Amak Mahmoodian is published by RRB PhotoBooks/ICVisual Lab. The visual exhibition runs until 22 March; arnolfini.org.uk

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All images © Amak Mahmoodian courtesy of RRB Photobooks

n 2004, Amak Mahmoodian – born in the Iranian city of Shiraz – undertook an archival research project lasting two years, using the Golestan Archives in central Tehran, once a home for Qajars, the kings’ wives, Harem women and their relatives. The resulting exhibition ‘Zanjir’ (translating as ‘chain’) explores complex ideas about identity, home, exile and family. Building on a photobook of the same name, the exhibition is the first complete gallery presentation of the project, bringing it into a gallery setting in a celebration of a major new voice in Bristol’s visual arts scene.

Amak – who has a doctorate in photography from the University of South Wales, and previously studied at the Art University of Tehran – used selected historical photographs as masks, asking her loved ones to hold the prints in front of them, framing her own kingdom and centering the sorrow of separation she feels for them as she lives and works three thousand miles away. The images have been surrounded by fragments of an imagined conversation – between Amak and Princess Taj al-Saltanah, an Iranian princess who lived at the end of the 19th century. Considered a trailblazer for women’s rights in 19th-century Iran, she defied her family and government and advocated for equality and democracy. In alSaltanah, Amak found a mirror, and in each other, these women have the opportunity to be vulnerable, ruminating on experiences of family, distance, powerlessness, yearning and hope.

Amak’s work questions Western notions of identity, expressing personal stories that pertain to wider social issues that draw on her experiences in the Middle East, Asia and the West. “I started taking photographs of people around me, who I was living with and who I saw every day. They were my present time,” she says. “Drawn from the Golestan Museum Archives, faces of early modern Iran recur through ‘Zanjir’. Masking the faces of family and friends, they conceal their lives and stories even as they call into the room those of other people lost to the past. Zanjir tells the story of two women through their families; those who lived in the past with stories that continue in the present.

“The desire to be home and the sorrow of separation create a new narrative within my images, which is now the narrative of my life,” Amak adds. “Taken over the period between 2002 and 2019, over 18 years many of the people in these images have been separated by distance and departure. The present turns to the past; a mask could be anyone, and anyone could become a mask. Photographs can help write family mythologies in intricate detail; without their physical presence, images become as close to us as the people within them – those we love, miss, and have lost.” ■

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CITY | BUSINESS

FAR LEFT: Confetti, Henri de ToulouseLautrec, 1894. This poster created for literary magazine La Revue Blanche depicts Misia Natanson, a celebrated muse whose salons Lautrec frequented LEFT: Champagne Ruinart, Alfonse Mucha, 1896. Produced as an advertising poster for the Champagne house of Ruinart in Rheims BOTTOM LEFT: Moulin Rouge: La Goulue, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, 1891. The six-foot-tall advertisement, printed on three sheets of paper, launched Lautrec’s postermaking career and made him famous overnight BOTTOM RIGHT: Ambassadeurs: Aristide Bruant, Henri de ToulouseLautrec, 1892. Aristide Bruant was one of the most popular cabaret singers, whose celebrity was often accompanied by scandal

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ARTS

Poster boys

A new exhibition is bringing to life the streets of Montmartre in its bohemian heyday. Emma Clegg asks Jon Benington about Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and artists who adopted the colour lithograph in fin-de siècle Paris

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Photographs © Musée d’Ixelles-Bruxelles/courtesy of Institut für Kulturausch, Tübingen

t one time Montmartre was a small village in the open countryside with 45 windmills. In the latter part of the 19th century the winding streets of the region were still dotted with working windmills – as seen by Van Gogh, Renoir, Picasso and Toulouse-Lautrec – and would have retained a strong country atmosphere. While bourgeois central Paris had been developed with grand walkways and formal parks under Napoleon III, Montmartre itself had been annexed in the same period, which had turned it into a bohemian centre and an affordable haven for avant-garde artists.

The artistic tale of Montmartre had its roots in a young Pierre Bonnard, who in 1889 designed a colour lithographic poster advertising France-Champagne, with the posters pasted up around Paris in 1891. Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec saw the poster and resolved to use colour lithography to design posters of his own.

Bonnard was part of Nabis Japonais, a fin-de-siècle, postImpressionist group that included Vuillard, Denis, Serusier and Vallotton, and drew heavily from the stylised designs and exaggerated perspectives of Japanese woodblock prints. “On seeing the Bonnard print, Toulouse-Lautrec would have made all those connections,” explains Jon Benington, manager at Victoria Art Gallery. The new exhibition there, ‘Toulouse-Lautrec and the Masters of Montmartre’, from 15 February – 26 May, includes this early Bonnard poster. “This was what brought Bonnard to popular attention,” Jon explains. “It is the only work by Bonnard in the show. It’s not very big, but it’s the source of what came later.” The revolutionary potential of colour lithography for publicity posters opened up a fruitful collaboration between commercial products and events and the avant-garde artists based in the region. The exhibition – with the prints on loan from the Musée d’Ixelles in Brussels – collects together the ‘street art’ of the era, showcasing more than 80 printed posters by Toulouse-Lautrec, Mucha, Steinlen, Chéret, Grasset and Bonnard.

...La Goulou – ‘glutton’ – was a star of the Moulin Rouge. As she danced past the patrons, she would swipe their drinks and down them...

“This is a unique period where commerce harnessed such cuttingedge artists and they did that partly because they were cheap to hire,” says Jon. “The posters were reaching out to the masses and some of them were produced in the thousands. It was advantageous not just for the performers – some of them went to the artists and commissioned them to handle their promotions, like Sarah Bernhardt with Alfonse Mucha – but it was beneficial for the artists, too, and it’s what made Toulouse-Lautrec’s name.”

Lautrec based himself in Montmartre, living closely among the prostitutes and performers who he drew and painted in the area’s dance halls, cabarets and brothels. He himself was high born, the son of Comte Alfonse Charles de Toulouse Lautrec-Monfa and Henri Marie Raymond de Toulouse Lautrec, but he made Montmartre his home and would have identified with the eccentric characters that were part of Paris’ underclass.

This connection would have been immediate and genuine because he himself felt an outsider because of his stunted growth, most likely caused by genetic inbreeding. “So many of these performers had come from troubled backgrounds,” says Jon. The mother of Jan Avril – a dancer and one of Lautrec’s regular models – was a prostitute and encouraged Jan at a young age to embark on the same profession. She ran away and was incarcerated in the Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital as a result of a nervous disorder – she first started performing there when patients would dance for the hospital’s upper class visitors.

The show includes details of the back stories of the artists and performers. “These are images created for promotion and to sell brands. So that’s the gloss, but scratch the surface and there is this amazing backstory,” says Jon. Lautrec’s Moulin Rouge, La Goulou depicts one of the performers he often portrayed and who he knew well. “La Goulou – meaning ‘glutton’ – was one of the headlining stars of the Moulin Rouge. She earned that nickname because as she danced past the patrons, she would swipe their drinks and down them,”“La Goulou – meaning ‘glutton’ – was one of the headlining stars of the Moulin Rouge. She earned that nickname because as she danced past the patrons, she would swipe their drinks and down them,” says Jon. This image also depicts Valentin le Désossé, with his characteristic elongated silhouette, who used to dance the quadrille with La Goulou.

“Lautrec’s prints and posters show his creativity, his gift for colour and design, and his sheer draughtsmanship and brilliance.

He loved to work directly in the print shop, cheek by jowl with the printers, and imbibe their secret ways and techniques. He was very inventive and came up with new techniques, like blowing the ink onto the surface of the lithographic stone, a splatter technique called crachis that you see a lot in his posters,” explains Jon. Lautrec’s constant ill health and addiction to alcohol – he started drinking to manage the pain of his condition – and the fact he died at just 36, still resulted in a prolific artistic output of 1,000 paintings, 5,000 drawings and 360 prints and posters. The show has 31 Lautrecs and 52 posters by other artists, notably French artist Jules Chéret, Czech artist Alfonse Mucha and the Swiss-born artist Théophile Steinlen.

The exhibition will be mounted on sunny yellow walls, with all 83 artworks close together in two tiers, and aims to mimic the crowded billboard character of the posters on the streets of Montmartre. “The exhibition will be true to the nature of how the posters would originally have been displayed. They wouldn’t have had frames on them and glass in front of them, but they are fragile, vulnerable things now, and rare, because so many did just get destroyed and torn down,” says Jon. The lithographic technique was new and at that time the technology didn’t allow the printing of paper on a large scale, so the larger posters were formed with multiple sheets jigsawed together.

Because the majority of the posters were displayed on the streets of Montmartre, they are not in pristine condition. “They are all a little bit worn at the edges, but that’s part of the charm,” says Jon. “I don’t want people to think they are only posters, that they are multiples and not special. That’s not true – they are really special, and amazing survivors. Because they were never intended to last more than a few months. And here they are 120 years later.” n • Toulouse-Lautrec and the Masters of Montmartre is at Victoria Art Gallery, Bath, 15 February – 26 May; victoriagal.org.uk THEBRISTOLMAG.CO.UK

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GARDENING CITY HISTORY

Image courtesy of Ray Willmott

The Bristol Troubadour queue in 1967

It’s a Village thing...

Musician Ian A Anderson recounts how the popular area of Bristol up on the hill got its name back in 1970.

Or, a rare tale of how disreputable folk musicians increased property prices. OK, so it was all his fault…

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n late 1960s Bristol, the area now called Clifton Village was fairly run down and bohemian. Those grand Georgian flats along Royal York Crescent, very cold and damp in those pre-central heating days, could be rented cheaply and many housed impoverished students, artists, writers or musicians. The now celebrated feminist author Angela Carter and her then husband lived on RYC, and I recall a theatrical family along there in whose flat I encountered a young, upand-coming Tom Stoppard.

Car parking wasn’t a problem, the shops were unremarkable (the old Victorian Arcade hadn’t been rediscovered and re-opened), estate agents weren’t thriving. There were none of the range of fashionable cafés that you’ll find today, other than a friendly coffee house called Splinters tucked in the corner of a small and unloved concrete shopping precinct that also housed a WH Smith, now a derelict, boarded-up eyesore.

But if you turned into Princess Victoria Street early evening, you might be startled. A queue, mostly of student age, could snake out of Waterloo Street, around the corner and into the Mall. They were there for the legendary Bristol Troubadour folk club, which had opened in 1966. I’d played there on the opening night, and became a regular.

Nobody looking at the building now – not even those of us who went there often and, in my case, even lived briefly in the flat upstairs – can work out how the tiny premises at 5 Waterloo Street, now occupied by Atkinson’s Health & Beauty Clinic, can possibly have held what it did.

Even allowing for the fact that ‘health and safety’ hadn’t been invented.

In 1969, the Troubadour’s founders sold up and returned to Australia.

The venue was bought by a local nightclub owner who had bigger

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financial expectations than it could deliver. The resident artists, newly installed manager John Turner (later of BBC Bristol) and the fiercely loyal audience battled to keep it going until it was closed abruptly a couple of years later.

Returning from time away in London over the winter of 1968/69 where I’d been in a losing battle with major record companies, I’d moved into a spare room in the flat above the club where John lived, as had fellow musician Al Jones. We’d got into the habit of wandering over to nearby Clifton Down Road for late breakfasts at Splinters, where the ‘business’ of the day would get discussed.

In early 1970, what was on our mind was producing a smart, generic poster for the Troubadour that could be distributed around Bristol, hopefully to boost its turnover and so satisfy the new owner. So John, myself and possibly Al, too, were sat in Splinters, scoffing coffee and Sally Lunn teacakes, brainstorming some copy text for it. I had a lightbulb moment about echoing the famous beatnik Greenwich Village folk scene in New York from whence the 1960s commercial folk boom, Bob Dylan et al, had originated, and came up with the idea of putting the address as Clifton Village. It seemed cute… So either Rodney Matthews or Terry Brace of local graphic design/rock music promoters Plastic Dog designed it up and got it printed.

The poster went out widely in Bristol at the time, and from then on the club always used the Clifton Village address in its event advertising and communications. It turns out – and people have carefully researched this – that the term had never been used before this, in print anyway. Yes, when greater Clifton was built in Georgian and Victorian times it

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CITY HISTORY

expanded on what had been a small village outside of Bristol city, but it seems to only have ever been called, straightforwardly, Clifton.

In 1973, after the Troubadour had closed, I moved away. In 1980 – although I wasn’t aware of it at the time – Michael Pascoe’s The Clifton Guide (Redcliffe Press) mentioned that “Today the term Clifton Village is often used to describe the heart of Clifton. It has been dismissed as an estate agent’s term, but there is more than a grain of truth in the description. Local residents’ societies have joined together in several projects including the enormously successful Clifton Village Fayres of 1978 and 1979.”

It wasn’t until I moved back a decade ago that I discovered how the term had become ubiquitous – quite a surprise! It was so-named on road signs, printed maps, bus routes, numerous business names from fish’n’chip shops to pharmacies and delis, and eventually an actual residents’ parking zone. You couldn’t look in a local estate agent’s window without seeing references to it, and that it was “desirable” and “sought after”.

Author Ian A Anderson’s 1970 album Royal York Crescent was one of the first releases on the Village Thing label, which has its 50th anniversary this year

A surviving copy of that original Troubadour poster has been lodged with Bristol’s M-Shed Museum who used it as part of a recent major exhibition on the history of music in Bristol since the 1950s, and in 2016 Bristol Civic Society acknowledged the role that the club had played in naming the area when they granted a blue plaque for the Waterloo Street premises marking the 50th anniversary of its opening.

A few years ago there was an ‘open house’ day on Royal York Crescent and one could go and visit an elderly lady (now sadly passed away) who had lived there since the 1930s, and hear all sorts of fascinating anecdotes about the history of the area. I asked her when she thought it had started being called Clifton Village and she said that it was definitely not until the 1970s, and how she, too, assumed that it had been cooked up by estate agents. When I told her the Troubadour poster story, she emphatically said, without prompting, that it would absolutely explain the derivation – that the Troubadour was so widely known in the day as one of the most popular venues in the area.

The Bristol Civic Society blue plaque was added to the building in 2016, acknowledging its role in creating the Clifton Village name for the area. If only I’d had a quarter of a per cent royalty point from the increases in property values that have derived from the idea down the years, I’d probably be very rich! In the early 1970s you could buy a whole town house, all four floors, on Royal York Crescent for 10 grand.

Nowadays, all split into flats, you’d get little change out of £2.5million.

A rare, probably unique example of disreputable folk musicians pushing up property prices!

Oh, and a footnote. A few months later, in 1970, we decided to start a folk record label which went on to become quite a cult imprint – some of the couple of dozen LPs which we released from 1970-74 can now fetch several hundred quid each. Once again we’d been sat in Splinters brainstorming a name for the label, and the Clifton Village idea came round again – maybe it could be the Village, er . . . something? Ah, Village Thing! It was initially based in the courtyard flat at 12A Royal York Crescent, though I doubt if it’ll ever get its own blue plaque – but Angela Carter’s flat at 38 probably ought to! ■

Troubadour regulars, Royal York Crescent, 1970. The men in hats are Ian A Anderson (centre) and John Turner. Andy Leggett is second left. Ian Turner, AKA Heavy Drummer, crouches with bongos

• Originally published at ianaanderson.com. Keep an eye out for celebrations of Village Thing Records’ 50th anniversary in 2020, and see Ian play St George’s Bristol on 12 March; stgeorgesbristol.co.uk/event/not-the-anderson-twins

Andy Leggett’s visualisation of Clifton Village was adapted as the background for Village Thing Records’ labels Txxxxxx THEBRISTOLMAG.CO.UK

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Photo by Jo Gedrych

...I had a lightbulb moment about echoing the famous beatnik Greenwich Village folk scene in New York from whence the commercial folk boom had originated...

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FATHER & SON: Jack and Mike are best friends, and despite the pressure of looming deadlines, they always end each day positively

FULL STEAM AHEAD: Methods have remained unchanged for centuries, keeping a rich heritage alive in the city

RICH SEAMS: One jacket takes upwards of 60 hours to produce – hand-stitches run into the thousands

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STYLE | TAILORING

CUT FROM THE SAME CLOTH

Flying in the face of fast fashion, in favour of slow, timeless style, father-son duo Territo Tailoring on Park Street is one of the city’s most enduring stalwart businesses. Here the master craftsmen talk tricks of the trade.

Photography by James Beck

T

he first Italian tailors to start their own business in the city, Giacchino Territo and his brother opened Territo Tailoring in 1967. Born in Sicily, in a village called Ribera, when Giacchino was six years old he was sent to watch his uncle working – principally to keep him and his brother out of trouble, but life in post-war Italy was very tough for the working class, so youngsters would start working as much as they could early on, to help support the family. Moving away from Sicily to find more work, Giacchino – Jack, for short – spent a brief time in Germany before following his siblings to Bristol where they worked for local firms before striking out on their own. The first Territo Tailoring shop was on Union Street, where it stayed until 1980 when the council redeveloped the area and the business moved over to Park Street which has been its home ever since; the place where its fully bespoke suits are so painstakingly crafted.

Images by James Beck; jamesbeckphotography.co.uk

...Dressing up is the statement it’s always been but there are so many ways to scratch that sartorial itch...

“The word ‘bespoke’ is a bit meaningless these days,” says Jack’s son Michael, who joined his father in tailoring full-time 10 years ago. “But our definition of our working really is fully bespoke because we do everything ourselves and don’t outsource anything to factories.”

You only have to pop your head into the workshop to witness for yourself how digilently the duo work on the making of both men’s and ladies’ garments – recently, they have seen a surge in the popularity of ladies’ suiting – and legitimising their claim of being the city’s real master tailors. Well-versed in the A-to-Z of the trade, they might be mid-way through measuring up a customer, drafting and cutting unique paper patterns for commissioned garments, or getting down to the nitty gritty of making a jacket predominantly by hand, occasionally enlisting the help of a 50-year-old vintage sewing machine, before finishing and hand-pressing. We mined their wardrobe-load of expertise to get the lowdown on life as a Bristol tailor.

TBM: How long did it take to learn the tailoring ropes?

Mike Territo: Being a tailor is a lifetime’s work – I think if you asked anyone in our trade if they have seen it all, they’d be lying if they said they had. We are always seeing new styles and ways of doing things that we always try and inject into the way we work. Giacchino has been tailoring for over 60 years, having started his training as a small boy in his village in Sicily, where both his uncles were tailors, so we’re part of a long tradition of tailoring going back many generations.

What fabrics do you like to work with?

We work with a wide variety of fabrics, and the choice for the customer can be overwhelming. So it is our job to find them something that realises their vision for how they want to look. This is especially the case when we produce garments to be worn at a customer’s wedding, when there are often many colour and style considerations to be taken into account. So, we find ourselves working with a number of mills both in the UK and in Italy, and we can usually find exactly what our customer is looking for. We also have upwards of 1,500 suit lengths on site, which the customer can choose from, some of which date back to the 1960s when the business was founded. So really we enjoy working with a fabric that both inspires us and the customer and the variety of different colours and patterns we work on really keeps things fresh for us. At the moment there is a real shift towards people wanting pinstripe suits – this could be, in part, thanks to the popularity of shows such as Peaky Blinders which has helped people rediscover sartorial trends from the early part of the 20th century.

What are your views on fast fashion?

It really flies in the face of our business model. Obviously buying bespoke is a more expensive means of getting a suit when compared to the high street, but what our customers soon realise is that they are buying a product of which great care has been taken to produce something that is both unique and personalised to both their figure and their taste. We are creating something that is not only to be worn a couple of times but can be passed down to their children, and their children’s children. In essence we are the complete opposite of fast fashion; we are slow, timeless fashion. Environmentally, one of our favourite mills produces its fabric in Somerset so, for the clothing industry, our carbon footprint for manufacturing is very small.

...There is a real shift towards pinstripe suits – this could be thanks to shows such as Peaky Blinders helping people rediscover sartorial trends from the early part of the 20th century...

Do you have any fitting advice or tips for those buying their first suit?

Most people that come to us have an idea of the kind of fit they are looking for in a suit; it is our job to work with them to create something that, above all, complements their figure. For us as

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STYLE | TAILORING

tailors, the most important thing is the lapels and the collar fit. Buying your first suit can be a real challenge for some; there is a lot of talk among the sartorial community about building a wardrobe, with different colours and styles of garment. This can be an overwhelming, let alone expensive concept for those starting out in the suit world. Our advice is to begin with a navy suit that can be used for all sorts of occasions and tends to go with a multitude of different accessories, such as ties, shirts and shoes. As we always say, the most important thing is that the suit makes you feel more confident, not self-conscious. When you put on your suit you need to wear it, not let it wear you!

How long does it take to make a suit and what’s the trickiest bit?

Typically one of our jackets takes upwards of 60 hours to produce, and I wouldn’t even like to hazard a guess as to how many hand stitches go into each garment but it’s in the thousands. Our main challenges come when a customer’s figure requires lots of figuration to the garment; for example, often people who work at a desk have what we call a ‘drop shoulder’. This is when one shoulder is a little lower than the other and something that only really shows itself when you put on a suit jacket. We assess the customer’s singularities and alter the item accordingly.

MATERIAL MAN: Giacchino started tailoring as a boy in Sicily and when he opened his business in Bristol there were tailors on every high street

...Styles have merged, especially on Savile Row. Traditionally British tailoring features a more formal cut and is stronger in look with pronounced shoulders, made in classic English worsted fabric...

What’s your favourite part of the process?

The best thing for us is building a genuine relationship with our customers over the course of the process; typically we do around three or four fittings over the course of the manufacture. Also many of the methods of working have remained unchanged for hundreds of years, so we really feel we are keeping a rich heritage alive in the city. When my father started the business there were bespoke tailors on every high street in Bristol. There is still the Merchant Hall facade on Small Street in the Old City called Tailors’ Court (now serviced apartments) where the many tailors used to meet in the 18th and 19th centuries.

What are your observations on Sicilian and British styles?

This is a very difficult subject to really (excuse the pun) pin down, as styles have merged somewhat in recent years, especially on Savile Row. In essence, traditionally British tailoring features a more formal cut and is stronger in look with pronounced shoulders, made in classic English worsted fabric. Italian style, in contrast, is more relaxed, with softer shoulders, and colours can be a lot more vibrant. This is born out of the fact that Italians tend to be more comfortable wearing suits and jackets as an everyday thing. We are, however, finding that this trend is proliferating itself into British culture; dressing up is still the statement it’s always been but there are so many ways to scratch that sartorial itch.

We always advise our customer to create a Pinterest of garments that inspire them as a reference for current and future commissions.

Is the father-son set-up usually one of peace and harmony?

The first thing to say about our working relationship is that we are best friends; that said there are moments in any collaborative relationship when things get tough, especially when deadlines are looming. However we always end each day positively and really enjoy all the time we get to spend together. ■ • territo-tailors.com

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MADE TO MEASURE: It’s about creating something that can be worn many times and even passed down to children and grandchildren

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WEDDINGS PROMOTION

The perfect venue

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hoosing a wedding venue has to be one of the most important decisions to be made for any bridal couple.

Trying to find one that will match the number of people, the budget and the right surroundings can sometimes be quite a daunting process. This is when Latona Leisure can step in like your wedding fairy godmother.

Owning four beautiful hotels in the area, each equipped with an on-site wedding coordinator, they are able to lead you, step by step, through the whole day, making you feel like royalty while entertaining your guests in style.

The Walton Park Hotel Clevedon, with its stunning sea views and superb new garden gazebo, offers an impressive range of banqueting suites catering from small, intimate family gatherings to large, formal receptions.

Wellington Terrace, Clevedon, BS21 7BL, tel: 01275 874253 waltonparkhotel.co.uk The Webbington Hotel & Spa has an impressive choice of nine different reception

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suites and a bespoke selection of menus to cater for everything from lavish sit-down meals to a designer finger buffet.

Loxton, Auxbridge, Somerset, BS26 2HU, tel: 01934 750100 webbingtonhotelandspa.co.uk The beautiful Georgian Limpley Stoke Country House Hotel, set in the magnificent Avon Valley, gives couples in the Bath area a choice of function rooms for up to 200 guests while a fourth hotel in Bradford on Avon – the Leigh Park Hotel – is set in five acres of grounds with its own walled garden and vineyard.

Lower Limpley Stoke, Bath, BA2 7FZ, tel: 01225 723333 limpleystokehotel.co.uk Leigh Park Hotel & Vineyard, Bradford-onAvon, BA15 2RA, tel: 01225 864885 leighparkhotel.co.uk All four of their beautiful hotels offer wedding packages to suit every need, from civil marriage ceremonies right through to the best evening celebrations you could experience, ensuring a totally perfect day.

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GRITTLETON HOUSE Welcome to our Home This beautiful family owned Victorian Mansion in the Cotswolds, will be throwing open their magnificent doors for their ‘WEDDING OPEN HOUSE’ on March 15th 2020 and the House has never looked so fabulous. Over the last few years the Shipp family have enjoyed restoring areas of the House. Most notably the extremely elegant master bedrooms – not only are they stunning but also huge, and the beautifully light and airy Victorian Orangery.

The House will be dressed for a wedding, with plenty of inspiration from Grittleton House’s team of talented suppliers. Come and enjoy a glass of bubbles and sample some tasty canapés, all freshly prepared by the in-house Michelin trained chefs.

Experience the relaxed atmosphere as you wander the house and grounds with plenty of time for contemplation!

Matthew Shipp, said, ‘We love Grittleton House and we love sharing it, not only is it magnificent but it also has a wonderful calm feel. During the Open Day couples will have access to all areas both inside and out and of course the beautiful new bedrooms, there will also be a couple of new surprises.’

Grittleton House offers true flexibility.

If you are looking for that unique and special venue, somewhere to call home for the duration of your stay (weekend and day packages available), this is the perfect setting for you.

♥

Can’t wait?

Contact Emma arrange a personal appointment: 01249 782 434 www.grittletonhouse.co.uk

LIVE ♥ LOVE ♥ LAUGH

March 15th 2020 12.00 - 3.00pm Join us for a complimentary glass of fizz and canapés and experience the wonder of Grittleton House dressed for a wedding.

Can’t wait visit our website www.grittletonhouse.co.uk to arrange a personal appointment.

Grittleton House, Wiltshire, SN14 6AP Tel: 01249 782434

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FOOD & Drink

TASTY TIDBITS FROM THE CITY’S RESTAURANTS, CHEFS AND PRODUCERS

SPENCER’S MINDFUL SPIRIT

Spencer stepped into the world of sobriety a few months before becoming a dad

EAT BETTER FOR BRISTOL City residents are being invited to take stock of their eating habits and take action under the ‘eating better’ strand of Going for Gold Bristol in February, to be in with a chance of winning a bundle of goodies from the Bristol-based independent good food delivery service, Good Sixty.

Going for Gold is a citywide effort to change food in Bristol for good, and be recognised as a Gold Sustainable Food City by the end of 2020. Bristol is taking major steps to improve the city’s food system in six key areas: eating better, buying better, food waste, urban growing, food equality and community action.

The eating better strand is all about changing our approach to everyday eating in a way that will have a positive impact on environmental and human health. Log one of the eating better actions on the Going For Gold website and you’ll be entered into a prize draw supported by Good Sixty, which launched in Bristol in late 2016, to connect people with independent food businesses in the city. There are now 40 independents artisan retailers you can shop with on the website, with items delivered to your door in one basket via zero-emissions eco-bikes.

“When we heard about Bristol’s push to become a Gold Sustainable Food City we were extremely keen to support the campaign,” says Good Sixty founder Chris Edwards. “All of us at Good Sixty are attempting to create a more ethical food system.

From our zero-emissions bike deliveries to the organic certification of many of our retailers, to our commitment to plastic-free packaging where possible, including the Reg the Veg fruit box prize we’re offering in this competition.”

“We also partner with zero-waste shops like Zero Green and are pleased that together we are offering zero-waste, plastic-free items in the prize to promote ethical consumerism. We’re also pleased to say that 40% of our Bristol artisans offer vegan products, fitting with the Going for Gold action to eat less meat.”

Log your actions throughout February for the chance to win a £30 Good Sixty shopping voucher, Reg The Veg fruit box and Zero Green zero-waste items.

• goingforgoldbristol.co.uk

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British entrepreneur and TV personality Spencer Matthews introduced his new flagship gin, created to help redefine the low and no-alcohol beverage category, to Bristol at The Florist last month. The CleanGin, with an 1.2% ABV, has scents of petrichor and pine needle that give way to a nuanced palate with suggestions of peppermint and silver birch sap. Botanicals include orris root, ground cardamom, coriander seed, angelica root, lemon zest, ginger oil and cinnamon.

The ‘mindful drinking’ trend is seeing many people take a more considered approach to alcohol, meaning the low-alcohol market has grown significantly. With a focus on ingredients and provenance, many consumers are more focused on quality and flavour and enjoying drinks responsibly. Spencer, founder of The Clean Liquor Company, is the first to admit he has had a negative experience with drinking. “Sobriety is a lifestyle choice I made a few months before becoming a dad,” he says. “I quickly realised that the drink choices for the sober-curious were limited, mainly sugary and unhealthy options. So, I worked to build a premium no/lo brand that offers a new option for people. By including 1.2% ABV we are able to capture all the character and taste of a great London Dry gin, so people can enjoy the occasion without any of the negative effects that go with alcohol.”

• cleanliquor.com

TIME TO GET FRUGAL? Two Ways Café in Bristol is supporting a more sustainable future via the Frugal Cup, a fully recyclable coffee cup made of recycled paper, designed to raise awareness of Project Waterfall’s aim to bring clean water, sanitation and education to coffee-growing communities across the world. For every cup sold, a penny is being donated to support the charity’s work.

Approximately 2.5 billion coffee cups are thrown away each year in the UK, however according to widely published statistics – such as those from the BBC’s Reality Check – less than 0.25% of these are currently recycled. Frugal Cups consist of two elements that separate so both the paperboard and food grade liner can be easily recycled. “We are always searching for sustainable disposables,” say Seda Ozgul and Walter Molinaro, co-owners of the cosy, independent coffee shop on Queen's Avenue. “The fact Frugal Cups are designed to be recycled easily in a standard process is a plus. Above that, the cups are made from recycled paper. We are excited to be teaming up with Frugalpac and contributing to the Project Waterfall foundation while minimising our impact on the environment.”

• twowayscafe.com; for more on the Frugal Cup and how your coffee shop can #getFrugal, visit frugalpac.com

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FOOD & DRINK | VALENTINE’S DAY

Loving to eat

Celebrate amour à deux, but don’t bring any preconceptions to the table, says Melissa Blease. Oysters are not compulsory, you don’t need a second mortgage for fine dining and pub grub can tick all the right boxes

F

or some folk, Valentine’s Day is the most romantic day of the year – a time to shower (and be showered in) private and public displays of affection, to ask Alexa/ Siri to keep the love songs comin’ and paint the town/your home red. For others, it’s an overtly commercial slush-fest maintained for the sole purpose of keeping the big business fat cats well fed.

Whatever your personal perspective, you can’t really pretend it’s not happening – and if you ignore it entirely, you run the risk of ending up feeling a bit jaded. So if we’re to assume that none of us want to feel jaded this V-Day, we need to get analytical in advance of The Big Day itself and under the skin of the personality of our date-night paramour in order to find true love.

Despite the fact that Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night head honcho Orsino reckoned that music, not grub, be the food of love, most of us still opt for the concept of a romantic meal for two instead of simply letting the band play on – which is why V-Day is the hospitality industry’s busiest day of the year.

Date-night dining, however, can be strewn

with anxiety attack-inducing potential. Too many people obsess over details such as how much aftershave or perfume is too much/ not enough, whether ordering a salad will/won’t make them look like they don’t really like food and whether pasta will give them wind, to the point where they’re so wound up by date time that all they can manage is three large glasses of wine for a starter (never a good look). Chill out and let Cupid take control! All you need to be is the authentic, lovely you – which drew your date to you in the first place. And where are you going to have that date? Why, in a place that’s perfect for both of you.

THE CLASSIC COUPLE They know what they like, and they like what they know – preferably without too much change in the kind of environment (chic but relaxed; stylish but down-to-earth) they’re most comfortable in. Their problem is that, on 14 February, many restaurants go all in on the novelty – where have those dishes that the Classic Couple know and love gone? Choose wisely, and those dishes are all still centre stage; any eaterie worth its salt knows that it’s

the food that really does the talking on any day of the year, leaving it up to you to decide whether a sharing platter really speaks the language of love.

❤ Classic tables-for-two: Little French, The Lock Up, Pasta Loco, Pasta Ripiena, Mugshot, Pasture, Birch, Bianchis, The Cauldron, Lido Bristol, Glassboat, Bar 44, Marmo, Molto Buono, The Ox THE OIL AND WATER MIX One can’t abide fuss; the other loves attention.

One doesn’t know their yuzu from their yautia; the other’s a wannabe MasterChef contender. They both think that fine dining and/or Michelin stars means they both have to wear their most uncomfortable clothes, talk in whispers and pay £23.50 for a starter. What neither of them realise is that in 2020 fine dining can be a fabulous, affordable, accessible experience, representing the most memorable Valentine’s Day voyage of foodie discovery (and enlightenment) for all.

❥ Fabulous fine dining: Casamia, Harvey Nichols Second Floor Restaurant, Box-E, Bulrush, Adelina Yard, Tare, Root, Wilks YOU CAN’T GO TO THE PUB! Oh yes you can... and so you should: together.

Okay, so a dated little boozer on the corner of a dingy little back street may not be an obvious date-night choice for most people (although hey, if you’re in proper, real lurve, few people’s ardour will be dampened by warm gin and tonic served in a dusty wine glass). But today’s pubs are warm, welcoming heavens of bonhomie specialising in grub that hits the G-spot (that’ll be gastro, of course) for all and flaunting the kind of upmarket wines, spirits and cocktails that could shake even James Bond away from his usual martini.

❤ Perfect pubs: The Kensington Arms, The Green Man, The Ashton, The Bank Tavern, The Pump House, The Cottage, The Old Bookshop, The Spotted Cow, The Mall, Channings, The Eldon House, The Lansdown, Grain Barge

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FOOD | & | DRINK

VALENTINE’S EATING OUT TIPS

The festive food box

• If you’re getting hung up on how to eat what, remember nobody actually eats like the girl in that 1970s Cadbury Flake advert, or Tom and Mrs Waters in Tom Jones, or Nigella Lawson in pretty much all of her TV cooking shows – they’ve all been primped, preened, softly lit, digitally enhanced and directed by an army of experts in order to look hot when scoffing.

• If you don’t like oysters, don’t eat them just because it’s Valentine’s Day – you’ll only end up balking. The same goes for prawns, asparagus, chocolate and all the other supposedly aphrodisiac-laden food that proliferates on ‘romantic’ sharing menus.

• If the couple at the table next to yours start overdoing public displays of affection, proposing marriage, fighting, or anything in between, leave them to it – you may have a ringside seat, but you don’t want your chips to go cold while their drama unfolds, do you?

THE ESCAPISTS They have a desire to get away from it all... but not for too long, ’cause life (that’ll be work, kids, pets, box-set binges) gets in the way. They might also have forgotten who they’d like to escape with; it seems like a long time ago that either of them dressed up for dinner, talked to each other while eating it and didn’t have to set the alarm for 6.40am the next day. But despite how pressurised life can get, everybody can find the time for a one night stand at a totally treatsome sanctuary of seduction, where fine food and pampering (spa, spa, spa!) come as standard. So pack your bags, turn your phone off and prepare to fall in love all over again.

Reach, Tobacco Factory or Harbourside Markets, finishing with a cocktail at a smoochy, stylish late-night bar.

❤ Other on-the-hoof hotspots: Bravas, Pata Negra, Chomp, Filthy XIII, Under The Stars, Pizzarova, Beer Emporium, Ahh Toots, Matina, Vino Vino, Oowee Vegan, Pieminister

to generation gaps, relationship statuses or domestic circumstances. As Valentine’s Day is a celebration of love, it’s a great excuse to party with the people you love all year round, bringing loved-up couples, single Pringles, family members and those for whom life is most certainly not a box of chocolates into the mix. Table for 22? You got it! n

❥ Great for mates: Dough, Bambalan,

IT’S COMPLICATED! (NO, IT ISN’T!) Modern love comes in many forms, shapes and sizes, and groups of friends pay no heed

Seven Lucky Gods, Gambas, Woky Ko, Suncraft, Eat Your Greens, La Guingette, Koocha Mezze Bar, Kask, Poco

❥ Beautiful boltholes: Berwick Lodge, The Ethicurean, Thornbury Castle, The Pony & Trap, No.15 Great Pulteney, Sign of the Angel, The Pig near Bath, Lucknam Park FOREVER YOUNG COUPLES Whether they hooked up just last week or met many, many V-Day moons ago, these two have got a perpetual spring in their step.

Travel is tantalising discovery fuels desire, adventure equals more amore – and a Cupidcurated staycation (think a magical mystery Bristol-based food tour; see also thebristolfoodtour.com) makes the need for an EasyJet boarding pass redundant. Get out and about, plunder erstwhile hidden corners and fuel up on the hoof, grazing at the permanent food stalls in St Nick’s, Temple Quay, Finzels THEBRISTOLMAG.CO.UK

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FOOD & DRINK | PROVENANCE

Field to fork: the radical chef It’s increasingly important to know where our food comes from, and that the processes involved are sustainable and humane.

These are key beliefs of Jan Ostle, owner of Wilsons restaurant, and the reason he hunts the deer on his menu.

Simon Horsford joins him on a stalk in the Somerset countryside and explores this often controversial subject

I

“

t’s almost meditative,” says Jan, chef and co-owner of Wilsons in Bristol. I know what he means. It’s late afternoon and we have been stalking roe deer for more than three hours under the guidance of deer manager and supplier Matt Roberts. The silence is almost palpable and there’s a sense of peace and stillness deep in the woods in North Somerset.

He’s passionate about cooking, but even more so about provenance and sustainability. “How food reaches the table is now massively important to customers,” Jan says. “The journey – not just that the meat takes but the vegetables too – is so important. We have to realise that by deciding to eat the way we do, we have a huge impact on the environment.

Whatever way we can minimise the damage we do is a good thing. We have a responsibility to seek out the right kind of food system.”

I’d picked up on Jan’s stalking tale when I’d asked him where he gets his venison, one of the most popular choices when it appears on the menu. “I shoot it just the other side of the bridge,” he replied matter-offactly. Hence our trip to the woods beyond Clifton Suspension Bridge. It was timely too – coming a couple of weeks after a major UN report on land use and climate change suggested that the West’s high consumption of meat and dairy produce is fuelling global warming. It said that more people could be fed using less land if individuals cut down on eating meat. “We’re not telling people to stop eating, but that in the West we’re eating far too much,” said Professor Pete Smith, an environmental scientist from the University of Aberdeen.

So ‘we can eat meat, just less of it’ is a constant mantra. And wild meat has its particular attractions. As Matt says: “From my own perspective, attitudes have changed towards intensively reared meat and also a lot of people are turning towards vegetarianism and veganism because they don’t agree with the husbandry aspects of intensive farming, or the negative effects on the environment. Personally, I think wild meat removes a lot of those issues. There’s little to regulate the deer population or quality as there are no predators [apart from humans] and as they have had a natural existence and a free-range diet there can be no argument against using it as a food source.” In other words, they have a far better life than a farmed animal.

The stalk begins near Wraxall on the Belmont Estate, a private country estate well known for its organic produce. Matt parks up the Land Rover and in suitably camouflaged gear we all set off past a regal 400kg Hampshire boar and some Oxford Sandy and Black pigs into the estate’s ancient woodland. Quietness reigns as we tread lightly among the beech, oak and elm trees, sticking close to each other to minimise our presence, eyes alert for any movement. A buzzard swoops overhead and, later, a hare scurries into a hedgerow. We are after a roe buck, although the does are also ‘fair game’ from November to March – it’s all to do with the breeding season.

Britain is home to six free-living deer types; aside from roe they include muntjac, Chinese water deer, sika, fallow and red. Only the male sika and red deer are called stags, the others are bucks; females are either does or hinds. There are up to two million deer in this country – said to be the highest level for 1,000 years – and they are wide-roaming and supremely adaptable, found everywhere from Cornwall to Scotland.

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wildlife (there are also as many as 74,000 traffic accidents every year involving deer). It is equally important to ensure the numbers remain healthy and sustainable. “We have a responsibility to manage the deer population,” says Jan. “It is part of our heritage and is a beautiful thing.”

We continue our quest but the only roe deer we see are does; briefly a buck appears but it clocks us first and darts off into the distance. Matt is on constant alert for the wind direction with a nifty pocket windchecker – deer have an acute sense of smell – while another gadget (a Buttallo) replicates the sound of doe. Both Matt and Jan scan the horizon with their binoculars. It’s a long way from popping out to Waitrose.

After a fruitless three hours, Matt suggests we head to some farmland he manages near Blagdon Lake on the edge of the Mendips. We hurtle through country lanes that look as though they have been forgotten by time before eventually arriving at our destination. Matt and Jan take a look through their binoculars and we wander on. I’ve long given up that we will have any success, but as the sun begins to set, we suddenly spot a buck 600 yards away. We stealthily make our way down a hill across three fields, at one point being chased by some young cows, until we are about 70 yards from the roe deer. The end, when it comes, is brutally efficient. I watch as the high-powered rifle is unshouldered and placed on shooting sticks, there’s a loud crack and the deer is down. It is instant.

I was unsure how I’d feel witnessing this spectacle, but it’s been shot for environmental reasons and for food, and is done with the utmost professionalism. As Jan says: “It’s a terrifying experience and you want to do it correctly. What we were looking for today were bucks that aren’t going to do very well and may not be strong enough.”

What is clear too, however, is that Jan has a healthy respect for his prey. For him, it’s about the whole process of being involved with as many stages as possible in producing the food at his kitchen. “It keeps me connected,” he says. “It’s an ethical thing too. I can’t be involved in any substandard meat or food system. Our integrity is all we have.”

The forthright Jan, whose background has seen him work with, among others, Gordon Ramsay and Tom Kerridge, moved to Bristol with his wife Mary Wilson, who has a wealth of experience in restaurants and farming, to open their first restaurant in 2016. It’s from Mary that Jan gets his belief in provenance; the couple has recently taken on a fourhectare site near Barrow Gurney where they grow vegetables, have fruit trees and canes, and chickens, and will eventually have some pigs.

“Mary was the one who thought we have to start changing things. She is the academic weight behind this, I am the muscle,” he says modestly.

Mary adds: “Sourcing sustainable produce and growing our own has been at the heart of Wilsons long before we found the restaurant site; it was, and still is, central to our beliefs.

“Having a wonderful meal in a restaurant can be the most exciting and eye-opening experience and if we are able to start the conversation about sustainability by feeding customers venison shot down the road and beetroot grown on our own vegetable plot, then that can only be a good thing. Growing your own and eating from smallscale local farms is the most radical and rebellious thing you can do.”

So back to the deer: expertly and immediately gralloched in situ by Matt to avoid the meat being tainted – it’s like watching a gruesome surgery procedure as he checks for any sign of disease (it’s healthy). Jan and I haul the carcass up the hill to the Land Rover and later Matt

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Images: TBM and Derryn Vranch

“I can’t be involved in any substandard meat or food system,” says Jan. “Our integrity is all we have.”

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the delicious guide the best places in Bristol to eat, drink and enjoy

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and I haul the carcass up the hill to the Land Rover and later Matt displays a similar efficiently mechanical skill when he skins the carcass, carefully ‘fisting’ off the hide.

A few days later, I make my way to Wilsons where Jan is preparing a dish with the loin of the venison. He will, though, use as much of the animal as possible as a main dish, or as part of the ingredients for another (expect heart, liver, shin or leg).

“We have a responsibility as chefs to try and think of a different way of doing things. We need to be using the entire animal. Look at our menu [concise and written on a blackboard on the wall]. It won’t say, for instance, fillet of pork, you will get you will get what you are given and it is our job to make it delicious.”

He is a big fan of venison. “It’s a natural food source and is abundant but people are funny about it. And it’s healthy – you don’t get much more lean than venison.” As for the generic term, venison, Jan thinks it’s an unfair one. “It’s like saying duck is a bird. Duck and chicken, for example, are two completely separate things. Roe tastes close to lamb, it’s so sweet, while muntjac has really firm, slightly dry flesh.” Different deer require different preparation too and some, such as roe, don’t need to be hung at all.

Jan is renowned for dishes that have a simple elegance and fresh ingredients (on this occasion a mouthwatering mackerel, oyster and cucumber starter and a sensational red mullet soup) and this creation is no exception. Playing on the smokiness of the venison, he has roasted it and rested it over smoking hay before dressing it with redcurrants from his plot, dried ceps from Dartmoor and an aubergine puree. It is earthy, fresh, natural, local and delicious.

If we are to continue to eat meat, then, as both Jan and Matt say, things have to change. Maybe in the future we will be eating cultured or lab-grown meat – currently being researched at the University of Bath – but in the meantime restaurants such as Wilsons are showing a way forward.

“Shooting the deer is a story for the restaurant,” says Jan. “It’s a narrative to know that you are eating meat that has been in the wild and been killed in a humane manner. These are things I want to know when I eat meat.”

• wilsonsrestaurant.co.uk 54 THE BRISTOL MAGAZINE

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Award winning fish & chips www.cliftonvillagefishbar.co.uk www.stokebishopfishbar.co.uk 4 Princess Victoria Street, Clifton, Bristol, BS8 4BP 13 Druid Hill, Stoke Bishop, Bristol, BS9 1EW

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FOOD | RECIPES

Kitchen colour Looking for a plant-based paté alternative? The chefs at Acorn have just the thing to add some vibrancy to a vegan lunch

D

id you get along to the supper club that Acorn – West Country pioneers of creative veggie cuisine – put on at Dela in Easton recently? Perhaps you’d be interested in signing our petition to get them to open a Bristol restaurant permanently... In the meantime, here’s a dish of theirs to recreate at home.

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Beetroot and walnut paté (serves 4) 14

This is simple winter paté full of healthy nutrients, perfect for cold January nights. A nod to northern Europe with the flavour combinations, it is perfect with rye bread, sauerkraut and mustard.

It requires 30 minutes’ cooking time but allow 90 minutes to cook the beetroots and 2 hours for the paté to set.

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Ingredients • • • • • • •

650g medium red beetroot 30ml water 20ml walnut oil 100g walnuts 100ml water 5g dill 2g agar powder (setting agent; use it and you’ll be able to ‘pop’ the paté out of the terrine mould if you don’t, you need to make it in the pot you will serve in) • Salt

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slowly sprinkling in the agar powder.

Bring up to a simmer gently, whisking all the time to make sure the agar doesn’t settle on the bottom of the pan and catch.

When the agar mix comes to a gentle boil, remove from the heat and set to one side.

Blend all of this together until very smooth with a silky texture and pass through a sieve to remove any lumps (or, if you aren’t that much of a perfectionist and don’t want to clean paté from a sieve, carry on regardless).

Taste for salt and adjust as necessary, bearing in mind the mix will be served cold.

If you are making this without agar then simply spoon or pipe it evenly between your pots, clingfilm the top of them to prevent a dry skin from forming and pop them in the fridge.

If you are making the agar version: while the mix is still hot, carefully spoon or pipe the mix into the prepared terrine mould, smoothing it and banging the mould down as you go to knock out any air pockets.

Carefully smooth off the top with a palette knife and cover with clingfilm, in contact with the mix to prevent a skin from forming.

Pop in the fridge for 1 – 2 hours to set.

When ready to serve, remove the clingfilm, use the baking paper you carefully left hanging over the edge of the mould to work the mix loose and carefully turn over the mould onto a chopping board and removing the baking paper. Cut cleanly into 1.5cm (½ inch) slices and serve with rye bread, sauerkraut and mustard. ■ • acornrestaurant.co.uk

Method 1

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Put the walnuts into a bowl and cover with cold water by at least 2cm. Leave for 6 hours or ideally overnight.

Preheat oven to 180°C (fan-assisted 160°C)/Gas Mark 4 Lay out a 45cm length of tinfoil over a deep baking tray and put the beetroot into the centre, leaving plenty of room around the edges to fold it.

Bring the foil up around the beetroot, capturing them in the middle, add the 30g of water, and seal the parcel by rolling up the edges, rather like a pasty or calazone, to form a sealed parcel.

Place the parcel on a small baking tray to catch any leaks and roast for 45 – 60 minutes until the beetroot feel soft when pushed carefully through the outside of the bag, but aren’t coloured.

While the beetroot is roasting, line your small terrine mould with baking paper, using a little oil to help it stick to the tin and prevent any wrinkles. The primary purpose here is to enable you to lift the set paté out without too much drama so make sure it comes as far up to the edges of the mould as possible and has plenty of paper overhanging the edges that you can grab hold of to lift it out. If you are omitting the agar then simply make sure you have the pots you are going to serve it in ready and to hand.

When the beetroot is cooked, remove from the oven and leave to cool completely while still sealed. Remove it from the parcel and gently rub the skins from it. They should just peel straight off but if they are bit tough use a paring knife to speed things along. Cut the beetroot flesh into chunks and put it into the jug of a highspeed blender.

Drain the soaked walnuts and rinse them with cold water.

Add them to the blender jug with the beetroot.

Add the dill and a generous pinch of salt to the blender jug.

Put the water into a small saucepan and whisk it gently while THEBRISTOLMAG.CO.UK

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DIGITAL | LEGACY

DEATH WISHES

Today we generate masses of information about ourselves on a daily basis, creating a second ‘life’ online, and while many of us want to make our mark on the planet, does this include a huge online headstone? Paul Wiseall discusses digital immortality

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DIGITAL | LEGACY

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egardless of background or bank balance, we all have two things in common: we are all going to die one day and we all have a digital footprint. And it’s this digital footprint that means we also have the opportunity to ‘live’ forever in a state of digital immortality.

In recent years the way we face death has changed. If you died 30 years ago, chances are you wouldn’t leave much behind except for a few photographs but today we generate masses of information about ourselves every single day and this information is creating a second ‘life’ online. This second life is a virtual you that you add to whenever you upload photos, leave comments on Facebook or even use Google Maps to find a destination. It knows what you look like over time as you update profile photos and it knows the words you use when you’re happy, angry or sad. And virtual you will outlive the physical you, representing your memory for eternity like a massive online headstone passing on your unique story. In some ways this is exciting and it means you don’t need to be famous to be remembered or to leave your mark on this planet. But what happens to all your online accounts and data after you die?

We call this ‘digital death’ – and it’s all about what you want to happen to your virtual life, so it can concern the deletion of your accounts but it can also mean the general curation of your online story too.

The problem is, us humans don’t like to think about death at the best of times so digital death is certainly something we try to ignore, which is creating all kinds of problems. For example, many of us may have encountered certain situations involving notifications from Facebook suggesting that we wish a friend happy birthday even though that friend is no longer with us.

...You can’t put that Bitcoin password into a will because wills eventually become public documents...

The dark side of digital assets

It goes further though, as online accounts can get forgotten, get hacked and get deleted even when you don’t want them to be. Twitter recently caused uproar when they announced they would soon start deleting accounts that they considered dormant as a way to free up new usernames. The problem with Digital devices are this is it risks losing lifetimes of tweets from people constantly gathering who have died and which many of us revisit to information from us keep alive the voices of those we’ve lost.

Digital death isn’t just about your online accounts, as it also concerns all of your virtual assets which can range from photos to web domains to money. Why does this present a problem? Today our digital assets are becoming highly valuable. One example is the millions of pounds some are investing in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, which is a digital-only form of cash. How do you give this ‘money’ to your next of kin? It seems simple just to give them the password to the cryptocurrency account but here’s the issue: we don’t know how to safely and legally pass digital assets to our next of kin after we die. This means that you can’t put that Bitcoin password into a will because wills eventually become public documents and so it’s not a secure place for that sensitive information to be.

...While we’re alive there are data protection laws like GDPR that ensure our most private data stays private but after you die these laws don’t typically apply...

The more you start to think about this problem of digital death the more questions appear, such as who owns your data after you die? And what’s protecting your data afterwards?

While we’re alive there are data protection laws like GDPR that ensure our most private data stays private but once we’re gone, these data protection laws don’t typically apply. It’s terrifying to think the dead have no data privacy rights and even more so when you consider what this means beyond your social media data. What could this mean to your financial or medical data?

Break the taboo, be part of the conversation

All these potential problems can cause worry but the good news is that there are companies out there that are working to solve these issues.

There are also three easy things you can do to take control of your digital legacy and ensure you’re accurately remembered for eternity...

1. Give yourself a Google. Find out what’s out there about yourself and see what your descendants will see by simply typing your name into a search engine.

2. Make a plan. Whether you want your accounts nicely curated or quickly deleted, you need to map out what should happen for each account.

3. Have a chat. When it comes to dealing with death the best thing you can do is to let someone know your wishes so grab a copy of your plan and take a friend for coffee.

It’s exciting to know that we all have the opportunity to ‘live’ forever but it’s important to know that in 200 years, when your descendants look back at who you were, they see a true representation of you. ■

• Paul Wiseall is the UK managing director of Death.io, a Bristol-based start-up working to solve the problem of digital death and other end-oflife issues; visit death.io for more information

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BRISTOL UPDATES

BITE-SIZED BUSINESS AND COMMUNITY NEWS FROM ACROSS THE CITY

THE BIG 3-0!

CAMB Knives raised £30k for The Grand Appeal to celebrate its 30th year

FUTURE WORKFORCE

BID FOR A BID

More young people will be given the opportunity to work in creative industries, thanks to a new scheme developed by the West of England Combined Authority.

Creative Workforce for the Future will support small to medium-sized companies to develop a more inclusive workforce in the region’s cultural and creative industries. It will draw on the wealth of talent available from currently underrepresented groups, in particular people from black, Asian and minority ethnic or disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds. In Bristol, 11% of the city’s working age population are from ethnic minorities – a position not reflected within the film and TV sector.

“Creative industries have been one of the fastest growing sectors across the UK, and this is reflected in the West of England, with 27% growth in digital and creative employment between 2015 and 2017,” said West of England Mayor Tim Bowles. “I want to ensure that everyone has an opportunity to have a career in the creative industries. Bristol is one of the BBC’s three key sites, along with London and Manchester, and the BBC Natural History Unit is soon to be expanded as a core part of the region’s production activity. It is also the home of Channel 4’s new Creative Hub. These businesses need skilled employees, and this demand is expected to increase.”

Participants will undertake placements at creative hubs to develop experience, CV, portfolio and industry contacts.

Businesses in Bristol’s fast-growing commercial area will be invited to vote for the area to become a Business Improvement District (BID) in September 2020. If the majority vote in favour, it is anticipated that £5million would be raised over the five-year BID term.

A BID aims to enhance an area and the performance of the businesses within it by delivering projects which are decided upon, and funded by, the businesses themselves.

This initiative is being proposed by Destination Bristol which already operates the successful Broadmead and Bristol City Centre BIDs. The vision is for a Redcliffe and Temple area which is vibrant, thriving, sustainable, inspirational and welcoming. Following the first stage of consultation, businesses have been sent a draft prospectus which outlines how projects would be delivered if the initiative is successful. They include: marketing the area and creating an identity for it; improving the public realm; ensuring that the businesses have a strong and effective voice; aiming to make the area accessible to all; and ensuring the area is safe and free from anti-social issues.

Initiatives aimed at improving the health and wellbeing of staff and jointly delivered corporate social responsibility projects were also raised in individual meetings.

A further stage of consultation is now taking place which includes a series of workshops giving businesses the opportunity to help refine the BID proposals before a final prospectus is produced in April.

• bristolbathcreative.org/takepart/creative-workforce

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No 188

A family-run business in Yate has raised over £30,000 for Bristol Children’s Hospital Charity The Grand Appeal.

CAMB Machine Knives International celebrated its 30th anniversary in October 2018 and to mark the occasion, the family set themselves the challenge of raising an extra £10,000 to bring their already impressive fundraising total to £30,000. The company, which supplies and exports knives to over 20 countries around the world, was established in 1989 and has been fundraising for the charity for almost 10 years after joining the Cots for Tots Business Challenge in 2010. They’ve taken on 10k runs, Halloween and Disney-themed parties, sponsored walks and haircuts, street dancing, marathons, cycle challenges, quiz nights and fishing matches, and sponsored Gromit trail sculptures to reach the £30,000 milestone.

The fundraising has been led by three generations of the family, spearheaded by daughter Sarah Hitchings and her dad and owner of CAMB Machine Knives International, Jerry Milner. More recently Sarah’s daughter Chloe and sister Emma also started fundraising, making it a complete family effort. “We have supported The Grand Appeal since 2011 and they are an amazing charity, providing an outstanding level of care not only to the local area but also further afield,” said Sarah. “We would like to say a huge thank you to everyone who has helped us. Whether it was through taking part in events, donating or fundraising with us, your support and kindness is appreciated.”

Helen Haskell, corporate partnerships manager at The Grand Appeal, added: “CAMB Machine Knives’ fundraising is true community spirit at its best. Not only are the whole family involved, they have engaged hundreds of people – clients, friends, family and their local community – in the amazing work of the children’s hospital. We are so proud to have brilliant people like Sarah, Jerry, Emma and Chloe in our fundraising family, and are immensely grateful for their huge contribution to our vital work at Bristol Children’s Hospital.”

• grandappeal.org.uk

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EDUCATION NEWS UPDATES FROM THE CITY’S SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES

NOW YOU ARE 10!

BGS Infants celebrated 10 years of the school with a day of themed activities

LEARN TO PLAY

SEND BOOST?

A free national event, to encourage everyone in the UK to start making music, is coming to Bristol this March. Supported by Jools Holland OBE, and run by charity Music for All, the 2020 Learn to Play Day will take place on 28 & 29 March and will see music shops, teachers, venues and schools partner with leading musical instrument brands to offer free lessons.

Participating venues include PMT Bristol on Rupert Street, which will be offering taster lessons on rock instruments, plus plenty of in-store fun and excitement on 28 March. Since being launched nine years ago, the Learn to Play Day initiative has helped thousands of people pick up and play a musical instrument. Held in partnership with the Musicians’ Union, the Take It Away scheme and Making Music, the initiative has grown, with a record 10,000 free lessons held during last year’s event. “I’m delighted to lend my support,” said Jools. “It’s a pleasure to be able to share the joy of music, and this special day allows thousands to get involved.” Fellow artist Jamie Cullum added: “This wonderful day introduces thousands to the magic of music making, and often reunites people with a lost passion for playing.”

Bristol City Council is proposing to increase its Special Education Needs and Disability (SEND) budget by over £1.3m. The boost would help fund its Education Transformation Programme and address the Ofsted/Care Quality Commission (CQC) Inspection findings.

“Like many other local authorities across England we are transforming a service which continues to see increasing demand while being critically underfunded by central government,” said Councillor Anna Keen, cabinet member for education and skills.

“Funding for SEND is a priority for us and we will continue to ask the government for fair and appropriate levels of funding that match our needs in Bristol; however this is of immense importance and we must act now, so are looking to make the necessary adjustments in our budget to ensure we can fund the programme now and drive improvements for the future.”

Schools, like the council, recognise the urgent need to drive improvements in SEND in Bristol and will be supported so there is minimal short-term impact on the budgets of other education priorities.

• musicforall.org.uk/learntoplayday

• bristol.gov.uk

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In January 2010, two days later than planned, owing to heavy snow, Bristol Grammar School opened the doors to its infant school. To mark its 10th birthday this year, there was a day of celebration last month. The infants were joined by former teachers, headteachers and some of the original pupils – now in Year 11 and Sixth Form – who came along to enjoy a trip down memory lane. The special assembly was followed by a day of activities themed around the number 10.

BGS Infants began with just 13 pupils; over the past 10 years it has grown considerably, occupying two buildings on Elton Road. Children enjoy Forest School lessons at Failand; have the chance to learn the violin and there are clubs, trips and activities to get involved in – over the decade there have been more than 100 clubs offered. Older pupils regularly spend time listening to children read and helping to run clubs, and each morning some of the youngest BGS pupils mingle with the oldest at the Breakfast Club in the Sixth Form Centre. Ten years is not long in terms of Bristol Grammar School’s almost 490-year history, but it certainly seems to have been enough time for BGS Infants to truly become part of the BGS family.

• bristolgrammarschool.co.uk

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EVENTS | FOR KIDS

Family diary

Ideas for things to do with the little ones in Bristol this month

Rats, Tales and Trails 15 – 23 February, 10am – 4.30pm, Brunel’s SS Great Britain Scurry along to Brunel’s SS Great Britain for ratty fun and activities. Decorate your own rat mask and explore the decks as a ship rat, but watch out for the ship’s cat. Delve into the nooks and crannies in search of six squeaky stowaways. Hear tales of rodent mischief on board the ship, or meet a real-life rat.

Suitable for all ages, normal admission applies.

• ssgreatbritain.org

Top pick...

DON’T MISS...

Winter Stargazing 3D Until 2 March, 10am – 6pm, We The Curious Wander into the giant silver ball for your very own guided tour. Discover famous constellations, unveil the secret lives of stars, and think about the fate of planet Earth in the 3D Planetarium with lively and knowledgable presenters creating a remarkable show experience. Suitable for ages six and above, £3.50 plus general admission; wethecurious.org Sarah and Duck’s Big Top Birthday 15 & 16 February, 10.30am, 11.30am and 1.30pm, Redgrave Theatre Join Sarah and Duck, along with their friends The Ribbon Sisters, The Shallots, Flamingo and more as they plan a birthday party for Scarf Lady. The story of a magical adventure told through an enchanting blend of puppetry and music. Suitable for all ages, £14; redgravetheatre.com

South West Puddle Jumping Championships 15 – 23 February, 9.30am – 5pm, Slimbridge Wetland Centre Get your wellies and waterproofs on and jump into the puddles for a chance to be crowned the ultimate splasher. Wander around the wetlands before taking part in the daily puddle jumping competition in Welly Boot Land for a chance to win a prize. Suitable for all ages, normal admission applies; wwt.org.uk Lambing Live 15 – 23 February, 10am – 5.30pm, Avon Valley Adventure and Wildlife Park The maternity ewe-nit is ready for the little lambs to come into the world. With 20 ewes ready to lamb twins and triplets every day in the indoor handling barn, meet and learn all about them as they are born. Why not try your hand at naming one of the newcomers, and even have a cuddle with them at set times in the day. Suitable for all ages, normal admission applies; avonvalley.co.uk The Amazing Bubble Man 17 February, 11.30am and 2pm, Redgrave Theatre Louis Pearl has been thrilling audiences worldwide with the art, magic, science and the fun of bubbles. He combines comedy and artistry with audience participation and enough spellbinding bubble tricks to keep everyone mesmerised. Suitable for all ages, £13.50; redgravetheatre.com

Winter Stargazing 3D at We The Curious

Farmyard Fun 18 February, 11am – 3pm, Somerset Rural Life Museum Meet the visiting goat, sheep and pony and don’t be afraid to make a fuss. Go on a hunt around the museum and see how many cuddly 66 THE BRISTOL MAGAZINE

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farmyard animals you can spot hiding in the galleries. Or why not have a go at making your own farmyard craft? Suitable for all ages, normal admission applies; swheritage.org.uk Children’s nature trails 18 and 20 February, 11am – 12pm, Dyrham Park Explore the park with exciting family activities throughout on one of the popular guided discovery trails. Hunt for bugs, find the deer herd and enjoy an array of activities.

Suitable for all ages. Free, normal admission to the property applies, no booking needed; nationaltrust.org.uk/dyrham-park The Very Hungry Caterpillar 18 – 21 February, 10.30am and 1.30pm, Bristol Old Vic The critically acclaimed production features a menagerie of 75 lovable puppets, faithfully adapting four of Eric Carle’s stories. Suitable for all ages, from £13; bristololdvic.org.uk Arts Award: Discover in a Day 19 February, 10.30am – 3pm, Bristol Museum and Art Gallery Explore Bristol’s art collection, find out about artists and their work and create your own awesome art. Investigate colour mixing, contrasting and complementary colours, experiment with art materials and earn yourself a Discover Arts Award. Suitable for home-education families ages seven to 11. £15, booking essential; bristolmuseums.org.uk Wild Words: Mona & the Whale 19 February, 11.45am, St George’s Bristol Catch Wild Words’ latest family show as they team up with Sealion Woman for a ride inside a whale across oceans deep and blue, with mesmerising voice and innovative double bass.

A musical story exploring the environmental

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EVENTS | FOR KIDS

issues of today and tomorrow. Suitable for ages six and above, £6; stgeorgesbristol.co.uk Arthur’s Dream Boat 20 – 22 February, 11am and 2pm, Tobacco Factory Theatres A playful show about a little boy who has a dream about a beautiful pink and green boat with a stripy mast. But who will notice the boat growing from his head? Bounce along the waves with breathtaking puppets on this enchanting adventure. Suitable for ages two and above, £8; tobaccofactorytheatres.com MiniBeats: Super Strings!

23 February, 10.15am, 12pm and 2pm, St George’s Bristol Join marvellous musicians from the Bristol Ensemble and presenter Laura Tanner to learn about the string section of the orchestra, then have a go on the instruments after the show.

Each performance is suited to different age groups. £6; stgeorgesbristol.co.uk TYNTEtots: Thumbelina 26 – 28 February, 10 – 11.45am and 1 – 2.45pm, Tyntesfield Enjoy storytelling, crafts and games inspired by the classic fairytale story of Thumbelina.

Create a fairy potion, have fun with frogs and make a tiny friend. Suitable for ages two to five. Children £6, adults £2, booking essential; nationaltrust.org.uk/tyntesfield

Toddler Explorers – Snow & Ice 28 February, 10.30 – 11.30am, Somerset Rural Life Museum Join in the fun with themed arts and crafts, museum objects and storytime within the lovely surrounding of the museum. Suitable for ages one to three, £5, booking essential; swheritage.org.uk

Mr Gotalot’s Gotalot Shop at The Wardrobe Theatre

Aftermirth: Daytime Comedy Club for Parents 28 February, 12.30 – 2pm, The Wardrobe Theatre An adult comedy club that you can bring your baby to. Each show features three top circuit comedians delivering their usual club routines, so the material is mature and sweary with the odd birth story flashback… The only difference is it’s during the day. Adults, and babies under 18 months only. £10; thewardrobetheatre.com Mr Gotalot’s Gotalot Shop: The Cheese Party 29 February – 26 April, 11am and 2pm, The Wardrobe Theatre The magical Mr Gotalot’s Gotalot Shop is open for business… but for how much longer?

The evil landlady Ms Barnet is running for Mayor of Bristol – if she wins, she will build a gigantic Cheese Factory, right on top of the Gotalot Shop. Suitable for ages three to 10, £8; thewardrobetheatre.com n

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SPORT | SWIMMING

MAKING A SPLASH

The pair has taken part in several promotions to encourage youngsters to get into the sport; it is a great sport for girls in particular, they say, helping with self-image and esteem issues

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No 188

Image by beualways.com

Training for this year’s Olympic qualifiers, campaigning for the environment and encouraging younger athletes: be sure to support Bristol’s inspirational artistic swimming duo in 2020

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SPORT | SWIMMING

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ristol synchronised swimmers Kate Shortman and Isabelle Thorpe made headlines last year for performing their World Championship routine in a pool full of plastic, among bottles, carrier bags and containers, to highlight the problem of marine pollution. Now, as they aim nice and high once again, this time for the summer’s Olympic Games in Tokyo, they bring us up to speed on their life aquatic.

well-rounded an athlete you need to be; you need the flexibility of a gymnast but also the strength of a bodybuilder and the cardio fitness of a swimmer. We also have to remember all our movements, the counts to the music, the specific corrections we get from our coach, and there can be 500 counts or moves within a routine. At times you can be taking on corrections for every one of those, which can be mentally challenging.

Why did you choose the path of artistic swimming?

TBM: How are you feeling about Tokyo? Bring us up to speed...

We are really excited for this year and everything it has to hold, from the qualifiers or even the French Open before that, hopefully right up to the climax of the year – the Olympic Games! We’ve been training as a duet since we were 10 years old and now with the big shared goal of the Games, and that’s very much been our focus for the past eight years.

We are apprehensive for the qualifiers in Tokyo at the end of April because the risks are high and we’ve been building up to it for a long time, but we are also super excited for all our training to hopefully amount to our goal. We are the youngest duet on the circuit and other than the two sets of twins, the only one that has swum together from such a young age. We want to put GB back on the map for our sport.

You have made real progress – what keeps you motivated?

We motivate each other really well because we’ve known each other for so long – we can second guess each other and we both know when the other needs to be picked up. Our joint dream of going to the Olympics as a duet is what pushes us forward and keeps us improving, along with the progress that we’ve made. When we do well at a competition, get good feedback from the judges, or even when our splits improve by an inch, these are the things that keep us hungry for more and focused on progressing. We have done several little promotions to encourage youngsters to get into the sport too; it is a great sport for children and particularly girls, helping with self-image and esteem issues. It is inspiring for us to see them happy and enjoying the sport.

What have been the highs and lows of the past year?

Two of the main highs (which were also our lows of 2019) would be the Junior Europeans in Prague and the Senior World Championships in South Korea. We swam at our very best in both our routines, improving our scores in each event and competition. We got really good scores which we were very happy about and were pipped into fourth place behind Spain who have been in the medals in the past Olympic cycles.

Some of the judges said we should have been placed second or third and missed out by literally a fraction, which was frustrating! The World Championship in Gwangju at the end of the year was such a good competition and it was so exciting to be in the sports village with all the other Great Britain athletes; there was a nice community vibe. For us there were some lows at that competition which we needed to overcome.

At the World Championships we had swum so well and were so close to making the top 12, which is a final. It wasn’t a setback because we did so well coming 14th in the world and being the youngest pair, but it was a disappointment as we were so close. We’ve used it to our advantage though, as it made us even more determined this year.

Artistic swimming is regarded as one of the most demanding sports physically; how do you prepare for events?

We would absolutely agree; it is a lot harder than it looks! You can’t touch the floor and have to hold your breath while pushing your muscles to perform without oxygen at a speed and with power. A lot of our routines require us to hold our breath for nearly a minute while still trying to maintain grace and elegance. A lot of hard and varied training goes on behind the scenes. We have sessions of yoga, gymnastics, ballet and speed swimming to complement the synchro training. This is all on top of our usual strength and conditioning programme. That shows how

Kate: I started in the sport when I was six years old, with speed swimming at age five and some Saturday gymnastics sessions. I think mainly it was through my mum and sister doing it and a lot of my family members being in the pool so it was a very natural environment to be in.

Isabelle: I started synchro when I was seven, just a couple of hours a week. I was doing 10 hours of gymnastics and a bit of ballet. I really enjoyed swimming and the feel of the water and in 2012 I decided I really wanted to focus on synchro; in the past my mum was a synchro swimmer and swam with Kate’s mum back in the ’90s; my brother was also a speed swimmer and so it felt like the right path to follow.

With your growing profiles, are there plans for further campaigns such as the World Championship routine in a pool littered with rubbish?

Swimming in the pool of plastic was definitely a massive eye opener for both of us. We’d never done anything like that before so it was a great opportunity for us to raise awareness of plastic pollution, which is obviously such an issue at the moment and really needs to be brought to more people’s attention. It did help to raise awareness for the sport too, helping to showcase it and get people to understand what artistic swimming is. We’d love to be involved in more campaigns in the future and are in talks with a company that will be making our Olympic costumes all from recycled materials which could be very exciting.

Training for the Olympics is incredibly intense; and you are studying.

How do you keep a career/home/study balance?

Training for the Olympics while still going to school to complete A-levels is difficult, but we have huge support from our school (Clifton High). For the past year that we have been combining our studies and training, the school have allowed us access to the pool, gym and sports hall and have gone out of their way to support us; coordinating the school timetable for the pool so we can train, and our lessons in the morning, enabling us to train in the afternoons. Isabelle has been at the school since she was 12 years old and they have supported her throughout her time there, allowing her to miss school for training or competitions and helping catch up with one-to-one lessons. We have also taken part in school activities, presenting to younger aspiring athletes from many sports on our journey. We obviously need to make some sacrifices with our social life, missing parties, events and special occasions but this is the path we have chosen for now and we know we need to give it everything because if we don’t, someone else around the world will and we don’t want to miss out. Academically the school help us catch up if we’ve been away for training or competitions. We have great support from our parents and friends, which is really good whenever we need additional motivation.

Focusing on the Olympics this year does help to prioritise things!

Who else in Bristol has really supported your development?

Our swimming club, City of Bristol, have been a huge support to us, always believing in our dream and ambition and pushing us to where we are now. They have allowed us to train with our GB coach during sessions, giving us time to practise our routines. The leisure providers in the city have also been helpful, especially Parkwood which manages Hengrove, and Everyone Active, which manages sites across the city. ■ • Follow Kate and Izzy on Instagram: @kate.izzy_official and check out sustainable swimwear site beualways.com

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THE BRISTOL MAGAZINE 69

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SKINCARE

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DR PAWPAW EVERYBODY HAIR AND BODY CONDITIONER, £10.50 Created from three key ingredients – pawpaw (also known as papaya), olive oil and coconut oil. This multi-tasker helps to moisturise and nourish skin and hair, adding shine and enhancing smoothness. Vegan-friendly and free from sulphates and parabens, it’ll leave the skin and scalp squeaky clean and smelling gorgeous with its signature mango and coconut fragrance.

ICONIC LONDON’S ILLUMINATOR DROPS, £30 A little certainly goes a long way with this stuff. These versatile shimmer drops allow you to bump up the highlight factor of any product in your makeup bag – just add to your usual foundation, primer or moisturiser or use on their own for a super-illuminating golden glow.

CRUELTY-FREE & GORGEOUS As more and more of us seek to know more about the origin of the products we use on our faces, the beauty industry has seen a massive rise in vegan skincare. We asked the team at Harvey Nichols Bristol to pick their favourite ethical essentials to ensure great-looking skin.

ELEMIS’ VEGAN-FRIENDLY PRE-BIOTIC SUPERFOOD AHA GLOW BOOSTER, £27

All products featured are available from the ground floor beauty hall at Harvey Nichols Bristol and online at harveynichols.com

Shake up your skincare routine.

Concentrated like a serum but with the nourishment of an oil, this is ideal for a lacklustre complexion; the addition of brightening pumpkin and cherry, both rich in AHAs and enzymes, helping to reveal healthy, glowing skin.

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EMMA HARDIE’S SUPER CHARGED VIT C SERUM, £49

Engineered to flexibly adapt to the contours of the face, it fits perfectly in the palm of the hand for truly precise application of foundation, primer and moisturiser. With countless velvet-like synthetic fibres in each vegan-friendly and cruelty-free brush, you’re guaranteed a flawless finish every time.

Helps brighten skin and reduce dark spots and pigmentation. The timereleased vitamin C helps promote collagen synthesis while vitamin B3 works as a daily defence against the harmful effects of pollution and sun damage. Its water-light formula absorbs quickly – the perfect platform for your daily moisturiser.

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NO¯ 188

SARAH CHAPMAN’S INTENSE HYDRATING BOOSTER, £59 Relieve dry skin. For a complexion that feels comforted, this lightweight, silky, oil-free formula is ideal for dehydrated, stressed and unbalanced skin with its combination of hydrators and immune defence skin protectors.

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PROMOTED CONTENT

PUT THE SPRING BACK IN YOUR STEP, TACKLE YOUR JOINT PAIN

Are you considering joint replacement surgery? Here, Nuffield Health Bristol Hospital tells you everything you need to know.

D

uring the last half of the 20th century, hip and knee replacement was revolutionised, and patients now have high satisfaction rates in terms of pain relief and subsequent functional improvement.

Osteoarthritis is the most common condition to affect the human joint, and is the most common reason for a patient to require hip and knee replacement surgery. Affecting any joint, from the smallest to the largest, it essentially means the joint has worn out.

Although a number of predisposing conditions or traumatic injuries may precipitate this degenerative condition, in the majority of cases, a cause is not identified. Osteoarthritis can have a detrimental effect on patients’ lives by affecting their walking, work, leisure activities and sleep. It occurs when the articular cartilage, which lines the joint, is gradually damaged. The function of cartilage is to decrease friction as a joint moves, but with damage, it loses its smooth gliding surface and the joint surface becomes rough.

Eventually, all the cartilage is lost, which results in bone rubbing on bone.

In the early stages of osteoarthritis, simple treatments are appropriate. These include painkillers, physiotherapy, walking aids, weight loss and injections into the affected joint. However, when osteoarthritis is established, causing significant discomfort, and these treatment options are no longer effective, joint replacement surgery is often needed.

Approximately 100,000 hip and knee replacements are recorded each year in the National Joint Registry. Most patients who require a joint replacement are in their late 72 THE BRISTOL MAGAZINE

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60s, but the operation can be performed for younger and older people.

During hip surgery, the joint is removed and replaced with an artificial joint. Both sides of the joint are addressed with a “cup” on the socket side (pelvis) and a stem on the thigh (femoral) side. During knee replacement, the arthritic joint is removed and the ends of the bones (femur and tibia) are replaced with a metal implant which has a plastic component, sandwiched between them. There are many designs and techniques used to perform these operations, which can be tailored to each individual patient depending on their anatomy, bone quality, age and medical history.

Last September, knee replacement surgery offered by Nuffield Health Bristol Hospital evolved with the introduction of the Stryker MakoTM robotic-arm, which assists the orthopaedic surgeon performing the surgery.

This robotic-arm assisted surgery brings a range of enhanced benefits for the patient, greater surgical precision and optimisation of the component’s position, which in turn leads to decreased pain and a faster patient recovery.

Currently, robotic surgery is only offered in Bristol by the Nuffield Health Hospital.

Following surgery, walking and using the replacement joint is actively encouraged, and some patients may even walk on their new joint the same day of the operation. The typical length of stay in hospital is 2-3 nights, with the focus post-op on patients’ rehabilitation. Driving is possible four to six weeks after surgery. Everyone’s recovery is different, and the physiotherapists at Nuffield Health Bristol Hospital work with you to NO¯ 188

understand your recovery goals. Whether it’s a weekly round of golf, tending to the garden, or playing with the grandchildren, our priority is getting you back to doing the things you love.

Also, and at no extra cost, our private patients can also choose to use Recovery Plus, Nuffield Health’s enhanced recovery programme, which includes three months’ membership at a Nuffield Health Fitness & Wellbeing gym.

At Nuffield Health Bristol Hospital, our team of consultant orthopaedic surgeons offer unrivalled reassurance of the highest levels in clinical care. Consultants specialising in both hip and knee replacements include Mr Richard Baker, Mr Sanchit Mehendale and Mr Michael Whitehouse. Those specialising in knee surgery include Mr Jonathan Webb, Mr Damian Clark, Mr James Robinson and Mr Hywel Davies, while Mr Stephen Eastaugh-Waring specialises in hip surgery.

If you have been suffering with joint pain, and would like to book an appointment with one of our consultants, call 0117 911 5339, or visit www.nuffieldhealth.com/hospitals/bristol for more information.

Nuffield Health Bristol Hospital 3 Clifton Hill, Bristol BS8 1BN nuffieldhealth.com/hospitals/bristol

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Specialist in Cataract, Lens and Laser Vision Correction and Eyelid Surgery Contact No: 07885 655091 Email: javadvisionuk@gmail.com Facebook: Javad Moayedi www.javadmoayedi.co.uk

bristol menopause Menopause symptoms often vary in severity and develop suddenly, leading to mood swings, loss of libido and hot flushes.

The onset of menopause can be like becoming a teenager again, with huge emotional and hormonal turbulence.

We are passionate about women’s health and believe that no woman should have to suffer with these symptoms.

"My aim at the Bristol Menopause and Wellwoman Clinic is to help you navigate through this time using a holistic, individual approach to the menopause.”

Tel: 07470 867 485 bristolmenopause.com Low Barn, Sheepway, Portbury, Bristol BS20 7TF

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THE BRISTOL MAGAZINE 73

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PROMOTED CONTENT

Ingredients in Smart Infused Füd

“I designed a brain-friendly kids’ food range” Jo Saunders, Nutritional Therapy graduate, College of Naturopathic Medicine (CNM)

C

MN not only provides a brilliant breadth of knowledge which to build upon in private practice, it opens doors of opportunity for health-minded individuals enabling a change of career they feel truly passionate about.

What I love most about practising is sharing my knowledge and educating people in areas which are often confusing or overwhelming in the media. It feels amazing offering genuinely personalised nutrition advice which helps people make informed decisions and become responsible for their own health.

I have always had a passion for food, nutrition and the workings of the human body.

Whilst my job in television was interesting and enjoyable (I worked for the Discovery Channel

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and Animal Planet, Tigress Productions, then at Channel 5), I felt my heart lay elsewhere. I was keen to train for a career I felt passionate about and could help myself, my family and others to feel better.

I strongly believe that symptom-led medicine is not sustainable. We have lost the art and science of preventative medicine. I wanted to learn more about how the body functions and how nutrition – through foods, herbs and appropriate supplements – can support optimal health.

I see clients as part of the UK-wide NatureDoc team led by experienced naturopath Lucinda Miller. I have also cofounded the UK's first and only children's frozen food range focused on mental health & wellbeing, Smart Infused Füd, something I am hugely excited about! The range is designed to be rich in nutrients studied for their benefits in cognitive function and mental wellness.

Working mums need all the help they can get and Smart Infused Füd offers guilt-free, locally sourced, environmentally friendly, nutritionally balanced food solutions for 5-11-year-olds.

What attracted me to CNM was the holistic approach which was important to me and offered me the invaluable flexibility of studying around my full-time job.

Empowering, engaging and in-depth, the CNM course has opened up amazing doors of opportunity for me, and I adore my work. I love being able to share my knowledge with both clients and friends. My learning was hugely encouraging as a mother; it enabled me to help my children in the best way possible.

NO¯ 188

Jo Saunders, CNM Nutrition graduate

Save the Date: CNM Event 12th February 2020 Discover how natural therapies promote true health and vitality. Our event is packed with inspiring tips on how to nurture yourself in natural sustainable ways.Geoff Don And if you are thinking of turning your passion into a career, this Open Event will also cover what you need to know about studying at CNM.

Visit naturopathy-uk.com

or call 01342

410 505

CNM has a 22-year track record training successful practitioners in natural therapies, in class and online.

Colleges across the UK and Ireland.

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Body contouring Overindulged this Christmas? Jeans feeling a little more snug?

Feeling sluggish and wanting to kick start a healthy eating and fitness plan? If this sounds oh so familiar then we might just have the solution..

Quinn Clinics in Redland is a doctor-led medical aesthetics and wellness clinic designed to bring about health and wellness to all of their patients.

They have in-house personal trainers and dieticians, a Yoga/Pilates studio and the only Body Contouring Suite in the South West; designed to make you look and more importantly feel, your very best.

Despite vigorous exercise and strict diet plans, many of us still struggle with trouble spots where the fat seems to just accumulate and be resistant to all efforts to shift it. This can play havoc with our mental wellbeing.

A healthy lifestyle is key to success and the three non-invasive treatments that make up Quinn Clinics’ Body Contouring Suite, are designed to complement and enhance this by giving you back your body confidence and taking your self-esteem to new heights.

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Everyone is different, so all treatment plans are tailored to the individual. It goes without saying that results are even better when you combine treatment with a good diet and regular exercise.

Ready to get your body back? Get in touch with the Quinn Clinics team and see how they can help you reach you 2020 health, fitness and wellness goals!

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info@quinnclinics.co.uk

2020

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THE BRISTOL MAGAZINE 75

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Pavilion Café c1923

The life & times of: Severn Beach While it never quite became the Blackpool of the West, this shingly spot sure had its heyday, and the views across the estuary are spectacular still, says Andrew Swift

A

mid all the anniversaries to be celebrated this year, one centenary is in danger of being overlooked. On 3 August 1920, a classified ad appeared in the Western Daily Press: FOR SALE, BUNGALOW. 10 feet by 16, two rooms, standing in freehold garden adjoining Severn Beach.

Ableton Lane crossing, Pilning. Vacant possession – apply 3, Imperial Road, Clifton.

The most striking thing about the advertisement may appear to be the bungalow’s size – or lack of it. More noteworthy, though, is that this seems to be the first time the name of Severn Beach appeared in print. For centuries, the Severn shoreline here had been grazing land, with a few scattered farmsteads. In 1900, though, the Great Western Railway (GWR) built a single-track goods line across it. By the time that advertisement appeared 20 years later, a local entrepreneur called Robert Stride had twigged that this windswept spot had potential, and, with the right marketing strategy – and its own railway station – could be a nice little earner.

The GWR needed little persuading, and on Whit Monday 1922 the first trains ran from Bristol to an excursion platform at ‘the newly discovered Severn Beach’. As a result of mass publicity, 11,000 people made the trip, but, while the weather was fine, there was nothing to do except go on the shingly beach, and virtually no facilities or refreshments. Then, as the crowds headed home, the crush on the platform was so great that one man fell under a moving train and had to have his arm amputated.

As opening days go, it was an unmitigated disaster, but the turnout had certainly lived up to expectations and, with six trains a day running to the new station, traders were soon scrambling to set up makeshift refreshment stalls. That first summer, over 70,000 people took the train to Severn Beach. Many more came by road.

As the season ended, Robert Stride established a development association to draw up plans for the future. According to the Western Daily Press, these included ‘a handsome pier’ along with ‘hotels and bungalows and terraces of handsome houses overlooking the arm of the estuary’. A Mr Blackwell built pleasure gardens and a beachside pavilion, a free guide to the fledgling resort was published, and ‘an enterprising Bristolian ordered 20 fine donkeys from Ireland’.

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The 1923 season got off to a flying start with 9,000 visitors turning up on Easter Monday. The Great D’Orleans Circus appeared at Blackwell’s Pleasure Gardens, while a week-long carnival included eggand-spoon races, tug-of-war, boxing competitions and a ‘bladder fight on donkeys’. In July, a new attraction – Westlake’s Café Pavilion, ‘equipped for refreshments and dancing’ – opened. Everything augured well for an even better season the following year.

On 11 October, however, disaster struck. The highest tide for 15 years swamped what was in effect little more than a shanty town. Huts were tipped over, tables, chairs and other furnishings were swept away.

Many bungalows were transformed into houseboats, floating on newly created lakes far inland. The only building to escape unscathed was Westlake’s Pavilion, built on pillars of stone.

The ambitions of the developers may have been checked, but there was plenty of time to put things in order for the start of the next season, when even larger crowds turned up. The GWR was also convinced of Severn Beach’s potential, building a new island platform, 720 feet long and capable of handling two trains at once, with a commodious waiting area.

The inundation seemed to have dented many people’s confidence, however, and it took some time to recover the initial momentum. Two things essential for sustained growth were a decent-sized swimming pool and a pub, but Severn Beach limped along without either for another decade. A small pool opened in 1927 but it was not until 1935 that one worthy of a popular resort was finally built. Known as the Blue Lagoon, it was over 90 metres long and equipped with diving boards, a water slide, children’s see-saws and a fountain. Two years later, George’s Brewery finally opened a pub – the Severn Beach Hotel – on a lavish scale, with a bar capable of accommodating 300 people, a lounge, a dining room and a ballroom for Saturday evening dances.

By now, the resort was not just attracting daytrippers. Many people rented chalets for a week’s holiday, while others braved the elements under canvas at the Rustic Camping Grounds. The opening of a ‘gigantic new inland lake’ also came in 1937, encircled by a miniature railway. Amusements included a helter-skelter, roundabouts, dodgems, a ghost ride and ‘the Toboggan Glide Rollercoaster’. There were water carnivals with swimming and boat races, bathing belle competitions,

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GREAT OUTDOORS

beach pyjama parades, seaside revues, and – in the evening – dancing to the strains of Dump Harris’s Glendale Melody Makers.

It must have seemed like Severn Beach was finally set to become the Blackpool of the West, and in 1939 Robert Stride got the go-ahead to build the Sun Ray Holiday Camp. But then the war came, and, although Severn Beach’s popularity remained undimmed throughout the 1940s and 1950s, it was even less well prepared than other resorts for the changes the 1960s would bring.

Even so, crowds still flocked to the Blue Lagoon, while Saturday night hops at the hotel – by now renamed the Severn Salmon – achieved legendary status. Performers included Adge Cutler, who recorded his own tribute to the resort – Aloha Severn Beach – in 1968. This ribald paean to its exotic delights, however, only underlined how far this ‘little corner of heaven down there by the River Severn’ had fallen since the advent of cheap package holidays.

Eventually, the Blue Lagoon was abandoned, taking a final bow in a 1980 episode of Shoestring, with the private detective facing a showdown with a couple of villains in its vandalised, graffiti-daubed ruins. Shortly after, it was demolished to improve the sea defences.

Today, there is little left to remind us of the dreams of Robert Stride and those early developers. The boating lake has been filled in, the amusements long departed, and in 2002 the hotel was demolished, leaving Severn Beach publess once again. Yet the trains still run, Shirley’s Café – a Severn Beach institution since 1945 – is still a popular meeting place, and, while the shingly beach may not be much to write home about, the views across the estuary are as spectacular as ever, and the walk northward along the sea wall – now dominated by the Second Severn Crossing – is, on a sunny day, unbeatable. ■

Blue Lagoon opened in 1935

Severn Beach Hotel opened in 1937

• Andrew Swift is the author of Walks from Bristol’s Severn Beach Line, available from bookshops or direct from akemanpress.com.

A heritage trail can be found on the A Forgotten Landscape website; https://bit.ly/36SEcO7

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THE BRISTOL MAGAZINE 79

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WILD BRISTOL

Creeping beauty

How do you get your fix of wildlife during the dull days of winter? Pete Dommett shares his method

P

erhaps you fly off to see spectacular species in the welcome warmth of far-flung places. Maybe you make a pilgrimage down to the Somerset Levels to watch the starlings weave their magical murmurations. Or do you prefer a cosy night in with Sir David: his familiar and reassuringly hushed tones the background to some sumptuous Sunday-night telly? In the depths of a damp and dreary British winter, you’ve got to get your wild kicks where you can.

For me, it often happens during the ordinary doings of the day.

While walking the dog the other morning, I saw a treecreeper.

Regular readers of this page (I’m presuming there are some) may recall that, in last year’s December issue, I wrote about the city’s giant sequoia trees and their special relationship with this tiny woodland bird. To recap: treecreepers have adapted to roost in this imported species by digging out shallow scrapes in its soft bark. I’ve tried to witness this unique behaviour on several occasions, visiting woods in and around Bristol in the dead of night, but, while I’ve found a few likely-looking hollows (with tell-tale streaks of white guano beneath), I’ve yet to find one occupied by a sleeping ’creeper.

They’re not much easier to see during the day. Treecreepers are a common bird – they’ll be present in parks and patches of woodland all over Bristol – but they’re hard to spot. It was a movement that caught my eye (the dog didn’t see it: she was too busy interrogating squirrels), as something flew from the top of one tree to the bottom of another. Then I watched what appeared to be a feathered mouse scamper up* the trunk in ascending spirals.

It was hard to keep track of the treecreeper as it climbed (or crept, I suppose) higher, tweezering beetles out of the cracks in the bark with its long, thin bill. Drawing on all the shades of the woodland – mottled browns with paler streaks – treecreepers are brilliantly camouflaged. Apart from their silvery-white undersides, that is. One theory suggests that the bird’s brightly contrasting belly reflects extra light into the nooks and crannies that they probe for insects. I don’t know if this is true, but I hope it is.

When it could go no further, the treecreeper fluttered to the base of a nearby birch and started again on its seemingly endless search for sustenance. Winter can be a difficult time for these birds. By opting not to migrate, they’re choosing to tough out the challenges that this season brings. Staying warm is one issue (which is where the sequoias and their insulating bark come in handy); finding enough to eat is another. Treecreepers will sometimes join forces with other small species – blue tits, long-tailed tits, wrens, goldcrests and nuthatches – to form feeding parties that roam the woodlands together. The more eyes there are to look out for food (and sparrowhawks), the better.

My meeting with the treecreeper may have been fleeting, but even the briefest of encounters with the natural world is enough to lift the greyest of February days and a mid-winter mood. Go out and get yourself a wild fix. ■ *Treecreepers always go up, never down – if you see a bird heading headfirst down a tree, it’s a nuthatch.

For Rosamond Dommett (22.10.31 – 04.12.19), who shared her love of birds with me.

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One theory suggests that the bird’s brightly contrasting belly reflects extra light into the nooks and crannies that they probe for insects

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GARDENING INTERIORS PROMOTION

Magical mystery mirrored gloss makeover Local couple Helen and Brad undertook a renovation to transform their old kitchen into a modern, contemporary kitchen-diner with the expert guidance of Gardiner Haskins Interiors

A

fter viewing several kitchen studios, Brad and Helen visited Bristol’s Gardiner Haskins Interiors, where they quickly picked up on some cracking customer service being given to another couple by kitchen designer Alec.

“After seeing how Alec listened and cared for his customers, we knew immediately that we wanted him to design our kitchen,” says Helen.

The Bristol-based pair had an idea of a colour theme – “grey, minimal, contemporary” – to match the rest of the rooms in their house but were grateful for Alec showing them round the diverse colour range across the different kitchen brands on offer. They’d recently had the internal wall knocked down which originally sat in the middle of the room, so they already knew they wanted to create more worktop space for their family. They were thrilled with the new space created with Gardiner Haskins Interiors, as well as the smart storage hidden underneath the cabinetry.

“We wanted to have enough space to exchange our fridge freezer for a full-height fridge and full-height freezer,” said Brad. “This has given us much more food space. We are over the moon as Alec was able to design our kitchen with plenty of room for our new appliances.”

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The couple decided on Fusion Gloss Grey by kitchen brand English Rose which had the clean, uncluttered lines they were looking for. This was complemented by White Shimmer Quartz worktops, to make the kitchen feel light and spacious. “After seeing the mirrored splashback on display in store, we chose to have the smoke colourway which helped to give the illusion of a bigger space,” continues Brad.

“Alec also suggested fitting smart storage within the cabinetry to create extra space,” adds Helen, “which we both agree was a brilliant idea and has created so much more space for us.”

“Alec really understood our ideas and suggested features which we hadn’t thought of such as moving the sink from being by the window to fitting it onto the island,” says Brad. Thoroughly impressed with Alec and the kitchen team throughout the whole design process, and overjoyed with their new kitchen, Helen and Brad now have a kitchen island large enough to fit four seats around so the family can eat together. Mission accomplished. ■ • Do you want to transform your kitchen? Book a free planning and design consultation at Gardiner Haskins Interiors Kitchen Showroom by calling 01179 292288 or book online at gardinerhaskins.co.uk

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INTERIORS PROMOTION

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GARDENING

A bit of winter container colour will get you out and enjoying the garden again

Container mania

Plants in containers feel somehow more manageable, especially if you’re new to gardening, says Elly West, and a carefully thought-out container display can really create a strong focal point when there is not much else to look at

I

t’s sometimes hard to feel motivated in the garden at this time of year, when the days are short and it’s still so cold outside.

Evergreens, berries and winter stems are all working hard, but the vibrancy of spring is a good handful of weeks away, and something new and fresh to fill the gap could be just what is needed to get outside and start enjoying the garden again.

This is where a carefully thought-out container display can really create a strong focal point when there is not much else to look at, especially if you place it in a prominent spot such as next to the front door, to give you and your visitors a cheerful welcome. Whatever the size of your outdoor space, or however adept your green-fingered skills are, just about anyone can include a few pots that will ring the changes and create a seasonal display. My very first garden – which was behind a London Victorian terrace – was jam-packed with pots as border space was scarce and it was an easy way to try out new plants and really take notice of their progress and what they had to offer, as opposed to border plants that would sometimes get lost among the plants (or weeds!) around them.

Plants in containers feel somehow more manageable, especially if you’re new to gardening. It’s relatively easy to keep an eye on a container display, cosset and tend to it. Plants generally get off to a better start in fresh new compost – you can water and feed as necessary and move the whole lot into shelter if the weather turns particularly harsh. Once the display is past it’s best, it can be moved to a hidden 84 THE BRISTOL MAGAZINE

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corner of the garden, or replanted anew. Pots can be shuffled around as you wish, either to create new planting combinations with other pots or within the border.

So if you’re planning to create a new display, the fun starts when you choose your container. For a cohesive look, choose pots of the same colour or material – a group of traditional terracotta, or lead or faux lead planters for example. Some of the modern fake materials such as stone or lead look as good as the real thing, but at a fraction of the weight, not to mention cost.

Or if you already have a mismatch of colours and styles that you don’t want to change, you could ‘zone’ them, grouping together the ones that are similar to one another and spacing them out around your garden.

You can always paint your existing pots a particular colour if you do want to give them a revamp and create more unity. But of course, it’s all down to personal choice. My old London garden contained a complete medley of colours and styles, and I was perfectly happy with that.

If you’re choosing new pots, go for those marked as frost-proof. Your plants will be dictated by the size of pot you choose. A row of small pots filled with just one type of plant can make for a simple and elegant display, or you may want to splash out on a larger pot that will take a combination of plants. The downside to having a large container is that it can be very heavy to move once filled with compost and plants, so consider putting it on castor wheels, or fill the first half of the pot with broken polystyrene packaging to reduce the weight.

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GARDENING

...Evergreens, berries and winter stems are all working hard, but the vibrancy of spring is weeks away.

Something new and fresh to fill the gap could be just what is needed...

Choose a loam-based compost such as John Innes No. 3 for permanent displays that include shrubs, as it holds nutrients and water better than general multi-purpose compost. Make sure your container has holes in the base, and place a few crocks in the bottom to help with drainage and stop them getting clogged up. It may sound obvious, but if the pot is large, put it in its final spot before you fill it.

Then comes the other fun part – choosing your plants! I like to start with a feature shrub for structure and to make a statement, and at this time of year it’s going to be chosen for its evergreen foliage or stems.

Consider one of the smaller varieties of phormium, such as ‘Jester’ which has colourful strappy, grass-like leaves, or a dogwood such as Cornus sanguinea ‘Midwinter Fire’, which has amazing stems in glowing shades of orange, yellow and red. Although these shrubs will likely outgrow their space after a few years, they can then be planted out in the border. Other good winter shrubs to include are Euonymus ‘Silver Queen’, which has silvery leaves that will light up a shady corner, or Skimmia japonica ‘Rubella’ with its clusters of red flower buds.

Grasses are also great for winter displays, adding lightness and movement. Most Carex varieties are evergreen, and I also love the black grass, Ophiopogon planiscapus ‘Nigrescens’, which adds low-growing drama to the edges of a pot. Ferns and hellebores are other long-lived plants you could include that are happy in pots, with hellebores bringing

beautiful early spring flowers as well as attractive leaves.

Think, too, about plants that will trail over the edge of your container, such as small-leaved ivies and periwinkles. Then it’s time to think about flowers. Check what’s looking good at your local garden centre right now, but you can’t go wrong with jewel-like cyclamen, primulas, heathers, winter pansies or violas. All of these are widely available in a range of colours. You should also be able to find pots of spring bulbs ready planted with their green tips just breaking the soil, which will keep the display going and give you something to look forward to.

Arrange everything on the ground first, then fill your container about two-thirds full with compost. Tip the key plants out of their containers and tease out the rootballs if they are slightly pot-bound. Position them on top of the fresh compost, then place the other plants around them.

Back fill with compost, firm it down and water in well, even if rain is forecast. Ta-da! Stand back and enjoy. ■

Plant of the month: winter pansies One of the best things about pansies and their daintier cousins, violas, is the cheerful and vibrant colour they bring through the colder months, and the fact that there are so many different colours available. When I lived in London, every year I used to fill my window boxes with dark red pansies that matched my curtains. They are easy to grow and inexpensive, filling the stands in garden centres, supermarkets and markets. Choose plants that have lots of new buds ready to burst and don’t let them dry out once planted. Keep deadheading the old flowers and they will keep going for weeks, if not months on end.

• ellyswellies.co.uk

Elly’s Wellies

Garden Designs

Turning your ideas into beautiful spaces Elly’s Wellies Garden Designs will help you maximise the potential of your outdoor space and tailor it to your individual needs. Whether you are looking for a complete garden redesign, or just need advice on what to plant in a border, Elly’s Wellies will be happy to help.

For a free initial consultation, contact Elly West

www.ellyswellies.co.uk ellyswellies@gmail.com 07788 640934 THEBRISTOLMAG.CO.UK

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House & Home

THE

MAGAZINE

The city directory of small businesses that are big on service To be featured in this section call us on 0117 974 2800 or email sales@thebristolmagazine.co.uk

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KF PIF full Page February 19.qxp_PIF Full Page 22/01/2020 10:38 Page 1

BRISTOL PROPERTY | IN FOCUS

T

his elegant Georgian country house with superb park-like grounds is found in the Mendip village of Wookey, a mile and a half from Wells and with easy access to Castle Cary railway station and Bristol Airport.

The house has been beautifully and extensively refurbished while retaining appropriate features.

On the ground floor a pillared portico opens to a central staircase hall. In the east wing there is a collection of elegant rooms; the reception hall, sitting room, dining room, and a spacious, purposebuilt kitchen/breakfast room with separate utility rooms all overlook the surrounding grounds. In the west wing, there’s a stunning orangery, beautiful drawing room and study, again all with views of the grounds and farmland. Also, at mezzanine level, there is a part-panelled gazebo overlooking open farmland.

The first floor houses five bedrooms – the principal bedroom has both an en suite bathroom and en suite shower room, and two of the further four bedrooms have en suites. There is also a family bathroom. All the bedrooms have extensive views.

Across the courtyard is a self-contained converted coach house, which can be used as a residential annex.

The house is situated within 13.19 scenic acres, which include a long drive, landscaped gardens, a hard tennis court, woodland and pasture. The main feature of the grounds is the striking lake with its own waterfall, island and boathouse.

HENLEY LANE WOOKEY WELLS • Five bedrooms • Five reception rooms • Additional converted coach house/annexe • 13.19 acres, including a lake with waterfall, tennis court, woodland and pasture

Guide price £2,500,000

Knight Frank, Regent House, 27A Regent Street, Clifton, Bristol. Tel: 0117 295 0425

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Property News 1_2.qxp_Layout 23 23/01/2020 15:33 Page 49

PROPERTY NEWS BITE-SIZED UPDATES FROM ACROSS THE CITY’S BOOMING SECTOR

For illustrative purposes only

Over 25% of new homes in latest phase of Wapping Wharf Living snapped up

O

ver a quarter of the new homes in the second phase of development at Bristol’s much-loved Wapping Wharf have been sold (subject to contract).

First Base has been asking local residents to help with hidden gems or locally loved spots to include

GET UNDER THE SKIN OF OLD MARKET Mixed-use property developer First Base, which is developing the Grade-II listed Soapworks building at the former Gardiner Haskins site, has teamed up with Visit Bristol to create a walking route encouraging people to get under the skin of Old Market’s history.

From the medieval tales of the Stag and Hounds public house to the former abode of a prolific serial killer, Bristol’s ancient Old Market is home to an eclectic mix of historical landmarks and stories, many unknown to the everyday Bristolian. The new partnership hopes to bring some of this little-known history to life with a series of alternative walking tours which will take people on a fascinating journey of discovery over the course of a couple of hours.

The partners have been asking local residents to help with tips, hints and ideas to include within the route – hidden gems or locally loved spots – which have been submitted via social media using the hashtag #oldmarketgems. “With so many historic landmarks in Old Market including Soapworks, we wanted to share the place we now call home with the everyone in the city,” said Lucinda Mitchell, project director at First Base. “We know that celebrating Old Market’s heritage is really important to local people.”

So far, landmarks along the route include a former pie-poudre court (an occasional court set up during times of market to quickly deal with disputes that arose), the 18th-century birthplace of Sir Thomas Lawrence – the leading British portrait painter for the royal family – and the former Church of England place of worship handed over to the Bristol Caribbean Community Enterprise Group to create a centre for youth, community and arts activities.

To register your interest, email firstbase@grayling.com.

• firstbase.com

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The one, two and three-bedroom apartments have been bought ‘offplan’ as works steam ahead at Wapping Wharf, an award-winning new neighbourhood on Bristol’s harbourside already home to an established community of residents and independent businesses.

Pauline Sangster, senior residential sales & marketing manager for Wapping Wharf Living, says: “We are absolutely thrilled with the response we’ve had to the new homes, especially so far in advance of them being completed. People are buying here partly due to the design of the homes but also because they already know and love Wapping Wharf and this is the place they want to live.”

Most buyers either live or work in Bristol or have a strong link to the city and are already very familiar with the community at Wapping Wharf, with its shops, cafes and restaurants, many of which are housed in CARGO, a popular hub made of converted shipping containers.

Several buyers already own or currently rent a home in the initial phase of Wapping Wharf and have first-hand knowledge of how desirable a place it is to live. They represent a wide range of ages and stages of life, from young first-time buyers to older downsizers.

In keeping with the historic dockside location and the phase one design, the new development has the same industrial wharf-like character. Many apartments have balconies overlooking the new street scenes or internal garden courtyards, whilst airy vaulted ceilings and terraces feature in many of the top floor apartments.

The homes are being developed by Umberslade and Muse Developments in a joint venture.

A show apartment gives potential buyers an idea of how their new home could look. Help to Buy is coming soon – watch this space!

Enquiries can be made to sales@wappingwharfliving.co.uk or by calling 0117 363 7839, or you can register your interest at www.wappingwharfliving.co.uk

Bristol & Clifton’s premier Commercial Property Agents Keep up-to-date with our latest news, deals, testimonials and market comment at our website: www.burstoncook.co.uk

(0117) 934 9977

85 WHITELADIES ROAD, CLIFTON, BS8

THE RAM, PARK STREET, BS1

• One of Clifton’s best restaurant/bar sites • On the ‘sunny side’ of Whiteladies Road with large ‘alfresco’ terrace.

• C. 3,000 sq ft internal space • Premises license for alcohol sales • New lease – new rent • No premium

• Late 2:00am alcohol license • Opening hours to 2:30am • Recent full top quality refit • 2,726 sq ft • 2 bar areas plus brasserie area • New lease • Sensible rent • Premium only £25,000 CLIFTON RESTAURANT

CLIFTON VILLAGE SHOP/ OFFICE

• Landmark corner unit

• Large shop/ office c. 1,400 sq ft • Prominent corner site • Only £26,000 pax

• Clifton Village

• New flexible lease

• 1,400 sq ft

• Fitted and ready to trade

• Only £26,000 pax BRISTOL CITY CENTRE • Office or retail unit • Undergoing contemporary fit out

ssing rists pa o t o m f o 1000’s

daily

• 800 sq ft • New flexible lease • Rent on application DEVELOPMENT OPPORTUNITY • High St Nailsea

BRIDGEWATER ROAD (THE ‘AIRPORT’ ROAD!) BS48

• Consent for 9 residential units

• Retail/ showroom space • 1st floor offices (separately available) • Large site with parking • Close to Bristol Airport & 15 mins from BS1 • Terms on application

• Price £495,000

Julian Cook FRICS

Jayne Rixon

Burston Cook February.indd 1

MRICS

Charlie Kershaw MRICS

Finola Ingham MRICS

Tom Coyte MRICS

Holly Boulton BSc(Hons)

• Sales / Lettings • Acquisitions • Valuations • Landlord & tenant • Auction Sales

• Rent reviews • Property Management • Investment Sales / Purchase • Development & Planning • Dilapidations Advice 20/01/2020 09:19

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Rupert Oliver FP February.qxp_Layout 1 20/01/2020 11:22 Page 1

Tockington, Bristol | ÂŁ1,195,000 A stunning family home in generous gardens and grounds, with gated parking and a separate outbuilding providing the potential for a self-contained annexe or home office.

Detached and well-appointed family house | Separate outbuilding and workshop providing exciting potential | Just over an acre of south facing gardens and grounds | Generous open plan family kitchen and dining room | Family room, playroom / study and a separate sitting room | Master bedroom with en-suite bathroom | Five further double bedrooms and two bath / shower rooms | Top floor study / bedroom seven | Gated off-street parking | Superb village location close to excellent schools | EPC: E

In all circa 4,830 sq. ft (450 sq. m) for the whole.

Wapping Wharf fp.qxp_Layout 1 20/01/2020 09:20 Page 1

cjhole.co.uk

JOHN REPTON GARDENS, BRENTRY

BRECON ROAD, HENLEAZE

Located in an enviable position within the highly desirable John Repton Gardens development, is this executive four bedroom detached family home. The property benefits from a green outlook to front, a south facing rear family garden, off-street parking for several vehicles and a detached double garage. EPC C

Offering vast potential this superb three bedroom detached family home offers spacious ground floor living accommodation including living room, separate dining room and home office. Further benefits include a double integral garage, substantial front and side gardens and a 35m rear garden including a previous mini orchard to rear. EPC D

3

3

4

£680,000

2

1

3

GUIDE PRICE £875,000

HILL VIEW, HENLEAZE

ST ALBANS ROAD, WESTBURY PARK

This deceptively spacious extended semi-detached 1930’s family home offers 8m full width kitchen/lounge/diner with fitted woodburner and five-leaf bifold doors onto veranda providing panoramic views over garden and beyond.

Externally the property benefits from a private driveway, electric up and over door leading to the 22m west-facing family garden, with side access. EPC C

Benefitting from many original features is this superbly presented, light and airy end of terrace period family home with spacious dual aspect through living room and John Lewis kitchen/dining room. To the first floor, a full width bay windowed master bedroom to front, two further double bedrooms and a quality modern bathroom. EPC E

3

3

5

£825,000

2

1

3

GUIDE PRICE £715,000

Clifton Office

Henleaze Office

Westbury-on-Trym Office

161 Whiteladies Road Clifton, BS8 2RF

108 Henleaze Road Henleaze, BS9 4JZ

25 Canford Lane Westbury-on-Trym, BS9 3DQ

Tel: 0117 962 9221

Tel: 0117 950 0118

Tel: 0117 435 1867 clifton@cjhole.co.uk

CJ Hole February.indd 1

henleaze@cjhole.co.uk

westbury@cjhole.co.uk

20/01/2020 09:18

WESTBURY PARK BS6

SOLD

£850,000

HARBOURSIDE BS1

SOLD

£480,000

WESTBURY-ON-TRYM BS9 SOLD £459,950

A substantial Edwardian family home, situated close to the open expanse of the Durdham Downs. Five bedroom accommodation over three floors, highly sought after location. No onward chain.

Grade II Listed Georgian home with 3 bedrooms, 2 reception rooms with stunning harbour views. Set over four levels this impressive property offers flexible living space. Residents Parking Zone, offered with no onward chain.

This Chalet Style 3 double bedroom Dormer Bungalow is ideally situated within a cul-de-sac. Offers a light, attractive interior 3 bedroom, 2 reception, large garden and offered with no onward chain.

STOKE BISHOP BS9 GUIDE PRICE £675,000

FAILAND BS8

SNEYD PARK BS9

An impressive 4 bedroom family home, recently extended to offer a generous well-presented interior, corner plot, southerly facing garden, parking and detached garage. Viewings are highly recommended.

A generous 4 bedroom bungalow on a good size plot, lounge/ diner with an open fire and French doors on to the garden.

Kitchen breakfast room plus a separate utility room, large family bathroom plus an en-suite to the master bedroom, large garden and garden room/home office. Parking for several cars and offered with no onward chain.

A spacious 2 bedroom coach house, garage and southerly facing garden, excellent location, convenient for the Downs and Whiteladies Road. Offered with no onward chain.

SNEYD PARK BS9

CLIFTON BS8

CITY CENTRE BS1

GUIDE PRICE

£550,000

A beautifully presented 2 bedroom Victorian house, situated on the edge of The Downs. Living room with bay window, kitchen/ breakfast room, Well presented bathroom, utility, plus a cloakroom. Attractive, enclosed rear garden.

£600,000

GUIDE PRICE

£375,000

A spacious first floor two bedroom Clifton flat. Excellent location convenient for the Downs, Whiteladies Road and Clifton Village.

Extensive living/dining room, separate kitchen, cloakroom and shower room. Offered with no onward chain.

0117 923 8238 Howard February.indd 1

GUIDE PRICE

www.howard-homes.co.uk

GUIDE PRICE

GUIDE PRICE

£560,000

£210,000

Spacious studio apartment offering circa 500sq ft of space, quality kitchen with fully fitted appliances, wall to wall double glazed windows allowing in a great deal of light, modern shower room with a high quality three piece suite, beautifully maintained building with lovely communal areas, bike storage and offered with no onward chain.

hello@howard-homes.co.uk 20/01/2020 09:20

203 Whiteladies Road, Clifton, Bristol BS8 2XT

Howard February.indd 2

20/01/2020 09:20

hamptons.co.uk

Latteridge, South Gloucestershire OIEO £1,000,000

A sympathetically converted former threshing barn, with generous living accommodation and extensive facilities including swimming pool and paddock. EPC: Exempt

Shipham, Winscombe OIEO £550,000

A beautifully refurbished modern 5 bedroom detached house with 3 bathrooms, large reception, eat-in kitchen/dining room, large front garden, rear patio, double garage and driveway. EPC: D

Theale, Wedmore Asking Price £1,150,000

A wonderful family home set in the pretty Somerset village of Theale, with self-contained cottage, studio/office, extensive outbuildings, paddocks, stables and 5.29 acres of grounds. EPC: E

Hamptons Bristol

Sales. 0117 369 1004 | bristol@hamptons-int.com

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20/01/2020 09:16

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20/01/2020 09:17

Westbury-on-Trym Office Call: 0117 962 1973 Mail: westburysales@oceanhome.co.uk Search: oceanhome.co.uk

Check out our latest reviews and 5 star rating on Trustpilot

Westbury-on-Trym BS9 £390,000 3 bedroom house This charming semi-detached home located a short walk from Westbury-on-Trym village and Henleaze high street. At the rear is a good sized garden with side access and potential to extend (subject to the necessary consents). Inside the property has a lounge with bay window, dining room with double doors opening onto the rear garden and a good sized kitchen on the ground floor. Upstairs are three bedrooms, a spacious bathroom and an additional W.C. EPC D

Henleaze BS6 £775,000 4 bedroom detached house

Westbury-on-Trym BS9 £495,000 3 bedroom detached house

A well presented, modern family home located within the sought after area of The Furlong and in the catchment area for both Henleaze Infants/Junior and Redland Green schools.The ground floor offers entrance porch, leading to entrance hallway, living room to rear with bi-folding doors opening to the rear garden, games room. The study has a window to the front aspect, downstairs WC and a modern extended kitchen.

Detached home on a quiet cul-de-sac.

The accommodation comprising of: entrance hallway, fitted kitchen, dining room, downstairs WC and an impressive sitting room. Upstairs there are three double bedrooms, master bedroom with an en-suite shower and a modern family bathroom. There is a garden to the front and side of the property with secluded rear sitting area, detached garage and off road parking.

EPC E

EPC D

100’s more properties across our 11 local offices – oceanhome.co.uk

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Sales, letting, mortgages & conveyancing

22/01/2020 11:08

Clifton Office Call: 0117 946 6007 Mail: cliftonsales@oceanhome.co.uk Search: oceanhome.co.uk

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Redland BS6 Guide £1,100,000 5/6 bedroom terraced house with self-contained flat A substantial 5/6 bedroom terraced house with 1 bedroom self-contained basement flat, set within a fine Grade ll listed Georgian terrace. Presented over 5 floors, this impressive family house offers flexible accommodation, off street parking for 2 vehicles and a level lawned rear garden with sun terrace and southerly aspect. EPC D

Clifton BS8 Guide £575,000 3/4 bedroom house

Redland BS6 Guide £525,000 3 bedroom garden flat

A charming 3-4 bedroom four storey mid-terraced house with versatile accommodation, tucked away on Sutherland Place, close to the Durdham Downs and Whiteladies Road. Brimming with period features, scope to have a self-contained garden flat & a low maintenance rear courtyard garden with gated rear access.

Situated in a prestigious tree lined cul-de-sac conveniently located for the Durdham Downs and Whiteladies Road is this beautifully presented and spacious Grade II listed garden flat.

Offering two bathrooms and a single garage to the rear, the property also benefits from a private entrance and is presented in excellent condition throughout.

EPC TBC

EPC D

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Sales, letting, mortgages & conveyancing

20/01/2020 12:22

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