Interview John Hawkins Retired
The Bear Pit
St James Barton Roundabout
Yeh, well what we used to do, we’d go along by by the M32, that was a place called Milk Street. And in Milk Street, along there was a rag and bone place, and next door was Bessle’s and she had some she sold second hand clothes, and it was all outside there, Mrs Bessle, and people along there. *1946 ariel photo of St James Barton.
And any rate she had sons that were boxers, and Mrs Bessle, she could hit anybody like her sons! She was she was.. well. We used to go down the rag and bone place, take what we could, take it down there and get and the jam jars and all that what we had and get money back for it, coppers back for it, we used to do that.
And in the war, when the after the bombs had all dropped, we went around and seen those bombs and obviously the derelict buildings. And the hosepipes on the road were all around the road and where the hosepipes been going it really got going because there’s a lot of pressure, there were tiny little holes in there and they were squirting out the water out of the hoses on the ground. Yeh.
And that was all round down Park Street, all around there, that was it and then in the mornings, when it was all, we used to sit there and you could hear it dap dap dap all the shrapnel went on the roofs.
And you could hear gun out of Purdown.
They called it Purdown Percy. And you could hear it and it rang as they fired it rang, but as they said, people said after they ‘I don’t think they hit very much’, but it gave you a bit of confidence. As though you might be doing something. Tell you there was firing anyway, but whether they hit anything...
But anyway, so that was Purdown Percy, and then we used to go down in the mornings after that and after it was with the shrapnel we heard hitting the roofs and all that, go round picking up all the shrapnel, and then there was loads of Americans about and then we used to ask them if they had any chewing gum, the Americans, and they come along and I had a US badge, and some shrapnel in a drawer I used to keep, but unfortunately I never kept it, so I wish I had have done now.
When the war was on we used to go down into the cellars, because the big houses had cellars and when the war was on like that I, we... we were in the main street, along Stokes Croft, that big place that’s there right now. The Germans came along, bombed it, and there were people going along when the all clear went, people going along to see it. And when the fire came again it went back and people cleared that road in about two minutes. Everybody out of their houses, their cellars, they all got out and away. And that was it and I came out one time I decided to go and down the we used to go to the infirmary down in the subway down in the infirmary and you meet all your neighbours and that.
And um...
We meet all of them, and while I was coming up from Maudlin Street, just up over the top by the old part of the infirmary, out of the mist there came one of these German planes, and he was firing. So I shot down him, dun, into the infirmary! Not because I was ill or what, is it, I’d hadn’t had an accident but if I would have done I’d got in there quick! Haha.
It was roads and a part of that, where Debenhams was, was the upper arcade, which was bombed. Right? And all that area round there, St James’ Barton. And Lewins Mead was the one you go back towards the bus company now, all round there and they had all big, you can probably see on your ipad now, all the big houses that as like that. And as I say, the upper arcade, so it was all there like. All the shops along the edge.
The Bear Pit… it weren’t there when I was younger.
Early 1900’s map of what would become St James Barton Roundabout and in time the Bear Pit.
Can I remember it being built? Oh yeh, well it was like well… and your Nan came down here, from Shropshire, they didn’t have any, they didn’t know there was a war on, well you know how people went away still. But they didn’t know about the war and they’d never seen that but when she came down here when we got married, 1951, I walked round there and it was still all, all bombed buildings. All round there look, that was all bombed.
And um. I was lucky in a way I suppose when you look round, innit? We’re very near, is it Marlborough Street? And all round there was all bombed, look. So that was what it was, so uh. Yeh, but the Bear Pit wasn’t there. I don’t think the Bear Pit was built… that Bear Pit place was built until ummm well in the 70s? Have a look in your… but I so I think it must be the 70s.
It… it… because in 1955/56 they were still working, and they altered it again after because, you know, all the shopping went up.
First of all they put Broadmead, that was what it was, and that was right but they got that sort of old fashioned, they’ve come in with Cabot Circus now haven’t they? Broadmead is the old part. And uh, that was a little bit of a second build up because in the first one, where you go up from, from, from the shopping centre, which is Broadmead, you go past the Cabot Circus, go up to Old Market, and there, and that was all… all round there was all just shops. On Old Market, but that’s all. There was no roundabouts or… anything like that there. No.
Yeh, I’m into history and all that, ‘course I am. I’m a bit… being a bit older now, I can still get around, but its not as quick as we used to be! I’d go down to the Bear Pit if there was some real reason to though you know.
So, right, if I could put one object in your Bear Pit vault what would I… something people could see it when the years have gone? From today? I would put… I would put uh, one of the first computers, what you’ve got on your lap. Well because it’s the start of the sort of age… the electronic age. ‘Cause I mean, before that, when I was growing up, even in 1951 when I was married we still had one wind up gramophone!
Yeh, we had wind up gramophones, that’s true. And then, and there was no cars, hardly any cars on the roads. And um, people that had cars had money, and most of it was on the busses. Most of it was on the busses.
So you came up here after the war, came up here after the war, to Southmead, in Marlborough Street. And in 1946 they re-housed us because we were in roosts in my grandfather’s house, living in there. And they, we came out of there, and we came up to Southmead, and umm… when I came first, up here form the city, they might as well have put me on the moon! Hahah.
Because I didn’t know much about being out in the sticks! It was only about half a dozen houses, new houses, out here then. Mmm. Ours were the first new houses because over there, they call it Eaesdale Close and the houses were built by John Lang, and they were ‘easyform’, so they called Easedale. First one, first out of 67 houses.
And the first doctor, ah, that doctor was there, she used to come sit and have a cup of coffee. They coudnt do now, they don’t even see ‘em! Don’t want to come in for coffee, do they! Hahaha. Its true, they used to come and sit and have a cup of coffee. And the, one of the doctors, I’ll put that in if you want some… you might be able to bring that in. One of the doctors, it was your Dad’s doctor as well. One of the doctors was Doctor Cramaldi, and Doctor Cramaldi was a cousin to Monaco, to Prince Reinier. And, and Cramaldi was your Dad’s doctor. Right. So he had a… he had a royal doctor. Really, royal, he said. And he also, Doctor Cramaldi, went to Princess Grace’s wedding. See what I mean?
Well, all the centre, where the harbour is, that was all the warehouses. And the warehouses were stuffed with stuff like grain and stuff like that and that was a big working place because the grains are still there, but all that was a work space. The centre, where you see it now, was where ships come in. The ships used to come right up to where it joins Colston Street.
Broad Quay, Bristol, 1910
By the Colston Hall, opposite the Colston Hall. So boats used to come right in there, and it was still there when I was growing up. And I, and the thing is there were trams. And trams which would have been ideal now. The trams were everywhere.
Yeh the trams were everywhere, even down by St James Barton. Trams were one of the first things to come on. Because they had the trams, or carriages with horses pullin’ ‘em. But I never knew that, that was before my time. But I knew the trams. And when they got bombed, one of the devils got bombed in the war, that was the start of the trams winding down. Now whether they’d have done that without the war I don’t know, but… but that was the start of it because obviously it disjoined, I mean they had a few of these busses coming in or whatever it was, you know, diesel and that. They started to use them. But before that it was all tram. And you can go up on top of a tram, on the top it was open, and if it was raining they had a seat up there that you could you could put the back up like that and turn the other bit up and that was dry to sit on and the back was, it went backwards and forwards, so you could do and you could face any way. I used to sit looking backwards because I didn’t want to see where I was going.
I went to St James Barton School. There weren’t many schools I didn’t go to in Bristol! We done a lot of moving in that time. ‘Cause I don’t know why, I don’t know why! Don’t know why.
And when your Gran, Hawkins, your Great Gran Hawkins, they decided to move again, I never questioned it. I was ready to question it if she was about but I couldn’t. She moved. And we went back to the roosts house, he had a bit house in Marlborough Street. Like the big houses in Kingsdown, and we went and lived in there because he had like little rooms, plenty of room.
So we went in there but we lived in there but the only thing was… there was Uncle Will, Uncle Fred, your Gran still had uncles there. And I grew up with them really. And then what we used to do, we’d go up there, we had… we had the attic.
Right at the very top, right. And when we went to bed, it was a bit frightening, because when the lights went out everybody else was a long way away. It was a bit frightening!
Anyway, so we were in the attic, we stayed there then. I stayed there and I went to Kingsdown School and then I left from there. That was about 1945. The end of the war.
Then in 1946 we came up here, to Southmead. And it was like, as I said, going on another planet, for me! Because I’d grew up in the city! And everything was on hand. And also, there’s another thing you’d like to say on it… what I used to do, all the family are Bristol Rovers football supporters, right. All the family are Rovers supporters, but because the war came Bristol Rovers stopped playing because people were going away to join the army. So they decided to shut down, Bristol Rovers. Bristol City kept going. So I, being in the city, we used to walk along Hotwells and go to the city ground. And we became city supporters, Bristol City supporters. And your dad said that was a near miss!
The last time I went to St James Barton Roundabout… or that area? Ohhhh… uhh… I went down there, oh no it must have been a couple year ago.
Because you stay away from there because it became very run down.
And you have buskers and that don’t you. I don’t know if you’ve still got them down there. Yeh, buskers. And then you had, people asking you for money…
so I joined all of them, asking the others for money! But it didn’t work! Hahah. No, but there was a… so anyway. The last time I went to the Bear Pit would be… Couple, no three year ago. Actually been down, in that way because your Nan was in hospital, so I been there, but actually I haven’t been down the Bear Pit for two, maybe three year.
There we go, you got all my history now!