Shipshape 9 - Spring 2012

Shipshape spring 2012

www.shipshapebristol.co.uk

arts,events, harbourside & history Bristol brewing | The Tower Belle | Aardman

Winter offers Glassboat, at-bristol, WonGs, Myristica, lido & shakespeare tavern

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contents

Spring is here and renewal is on the menu at Bristol Beer Factory (right), a thriving young brewery housed on the site of a venerable predecessor. More on them, and a brief history of Bristol brewing on page 16. Elsewhere, regeneration is also the order of the day at three key Harbourside sites (News, p5); meet the Harbour Master (p22), discover the iconic Tower Belle’s colourful past (p24) and fill your cultural calendar with treats. And give your feet a rest and do it all by boat – turn to page 20 for Bristol Ferries’ 2012 timetable and browse our Harbourside map. shipshape issue 9 spring 2012 published by The Group of Seven.

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Disclaimer The information contained in this publication is provided as a general guide only. While every care is taken to ensure that the details are as accurate as possible, we make no warranty or representation, express or implied, about the accuracy or completeness of the information contained in this publication. The views or opinions expressed in this publication are strictly those of the authors. The publishers and/or any of its associated companies or business partners accept no responsibility for damage or loss, howsoever caused, arising directly or indirectly from reliance upon any information obtained from this publication.

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SPRING NewS

‘A mess fit only for pigs!’

Life aboard ss GB’s longest voyage revealed A rare collection of papers from the ss Great Britain’s first historic voyage to Australia almost 160 years ago has been donated to the Brunel Institute, the ss GB’s conservation and education centre. The two letters and two newspapers come from descendants of passenger William Rance, who travelled from Liverpool to Melbourne in 1852. Rance wrote one of the two letters on the 81-day voyage, when the ship was forced to turn back to the volcanic island of St Helena for refuelling, adding over 2,000 miles and 20 days to the voyage (most journeys to and from Australia took the Great Britain 60 days).

Rance was one of 143 crew and 630 passengers who left Liverpool on 21 August. The collection documents passengers’ frustrations at the delay, which meant that the journey cost them more and, more crucially for many, that they risked losing out on Australia’s nascent gold rush. Many passengers voiced concerns about insufficient quantities of coal and the quality of food provided to second-class passengers. That said, they fared better than thirdclass or ‘steerage’ passengers, whose frugal menus included pease pudding, broths, gruel and ship’s biscuits – the latter often infested with weevils.

The Rance Collection includes copies of the

passengers’ onboard newspaper, The Great Britain Times, and of local newspaper The St Helena Advocate, which included articles and announcements from on board the ship.

In his first letter William Rance commented on the boredom of the voyage, poor ventilation and the almost unbearable heat. Another passenger, Mr Edwardes, reports in The Great Britain Times that the food is “a mess fit only for pigs”: another still noted how one evening after dinner “passengers were seen running out of the fore-saloon… each with a full mouth and distended cheeks was seen making his way to the bulwarks, when the sea received what the stomach would not”.

The documents can be seen in the Brunel Institute (next to the ss Great Britain), open Tue-Fri and some Sats from 10.30am: entry is free. s More: ssgreatbritain.org/brunelinstitute

M Shed needs you!

M Shed, Bristol’s flagship museum down on the harbour, is in the midst of an exciting few months.

First up, the museum got itself short-listed for the coveted European Museum of the Year Award 2012, Europe’s most prestigious museum accolade.

Nearly 60 museums were nominated for the 2012 award: just under 50 institutions from 18 European countries (10 from the UK) have made the shortlist. The winner will be announced in May. As further evidence of the museum’s growing cultural clout, M Shed has also been shortlisted for The Art Fund Prize 2012. This prize, four

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created “to recognise originality and excellence in museums and galleries”, will select one UK museum from a 10-strong shortlist to receive a £100,000 prize. And you, the people can log onto www. artfundprize.org.uk and tell the judges why M Shed should get the

gong: anyone who posts a comment will automatically be entered into a prize draw to win an iPad 2. The online forum and prize draw close on Sunday 22 April.

Back at M Shed, the museum is expecting its 500,000th visitor to cross the threshold during March – no small feat for a place that only opened on 17 June last year. A little later, the Shed will mark the arrival of the Olympic Torch in Bristol with the opening of Bristol Urban Sport (23 May-9 Sept), a hefty multimedia exhibition saluting the range of sports practised across modern-day Bristol. s

In brIef Harbour otters prosper Otters appear to be prospering around the Floating Harbour, an eloquent testimony to the cleanliness of the water inside the docks. Sightings have been recorded at points around the harbour, particularly in the reed beds on the northern shore near Capricorn Quay and further east where it joins the Feeder Canal. One otter was photographed within yards of the city centre, along St Augustine’s Reach, last autumn: you can find his portrait on the Bristol Packet boat trips website.

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bristolpacket.co.uk

Brunel swing bridge to return?

Bristol City Council is now at an advanced stage with plans to reinstate a historic Brunel swing bridge to its original position on Cumberland Basin. The wrought-iron tubular bridge forms part of a Sustrans cycle and pedestrian route linking Clifton with Ashton, and was built by the great man in 1849 to span the entrance to the docks. Bristol City Council will submit a second bid for Heritage Lottery Funding this May, with the result of the bid revealed in September. If successful, BCC hopes to start work reinstating the bridge in October.

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brunelbridge.org.uk

More: www.mshed.org Shipshape

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SPRING NewS

Full steam ahead on Harbourside Progress at three major redevelopment sites Wapping Wharf

First up, good news reaches us from Wapping Wharf, the Harbourside development project that has stood empty since 2008. The former dockyards between the New Cut and the Floating Harbour near M Shed, the last major Harbourside site to undergo regeneration, were cleared to make way for hundreds of new homes as well as a hotel, shops, cafes and leisure spaces. Subsequently, though, the recession meant that the Wapping Wharf development was put on ice, with the land currently being used as a car park. At the start of February, though, the project was revealed as one of 18 successful bidders for a share of the £46 million Get Britain Building fund created by the government to restart work on sites that have planning permission but are struggling for funds.

The new funding will allow Umberslade to complete phase one of the scheme, to include a shop-lined pedestrian walkway linking Cumberland Road and M Shed, as well as a new public square to link up with Bristol’s planned rapid transit bus network. Negotiations are now once again taking place between the city council and the developer, and a detailed planning application is being

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prepared, with Umberslade hoping to receive the final go-ahead in June.

But with outline planning permission previously secured, ground work will begin in May, with the main building starting towards the end of the year.

Follow progress at umberslade.co.uk Also worth noting is that the car park currently on site will remain in operation for the next two years at least, while the first phase of work continues – visit wappingwharf.co.uk/ cheapparking for updates.

Mcarthur’s Warehouse (below)

A little further west the dilapidated, red-brick McArthur’s Warehouse, near the ss Great Britain, has a long and chequered planning history and, in the past few years, has been in stasis waiting for an appropriate and viable redevelopment project.

Now, though, Linden Homes – who have created the elegant Great Western Dockyard development next door – plan to submit a brand new planning application for the site, featuring

a mix of private and affordable apartments, as well as commercial buildings. The site has been identified as an area of focus for redevelopment and regeneration in Bristol City Council’s Core Strategy, and Linden are inviting the public to submit their thoughts on the development at mcarthursconsultation.com, where you can also sign up to receive future updates.

Bristol general hospital (above)

Lastly, the project to redevelop the old Bristol General Hospital site beside Bathurst Basin (featured in our winter issue) is also going ahead. Developers City & Country Group held the latest of its public consultation sessions in January, with 98 per cent of respondents supporting its proposals for a mixed-use development featuring flats, shops, cafes and leisure spaces. The scheme is being finalised in preparation for a submission in early March 2012 following the consultation feedback and continued discussions with Bristol City Council and important local stakeholders. To see the planning applications and find out about any future consultation events visit thegeneralbristol.co.uk or check Shipshape’s summer issue. s five

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Spring eventS celBRaTe

Spyglass is 10!

VISIT BIennIal Bristol’s thriving visual art landscape gets another shot in the arm with the inaugural Bristol Biennial (1-16 June), the region’s firstever large-scale, multi-venue arts fortnight. You’ll find art exhibitions, film, theatre and performances at venues around town including Jamaica Street Studios and Bedminster’s BV Studios and, on the harbour, at Lime Tree and View galleries, Bristol Diving School, Spike Island and Z-Shed (which hosts ‘Circle Painting’ by Will Kendrick, pictured). bristolbiennial.com

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eaT & DRInK SheRRy & TapaS Wine, sherry and cocktail lounge Harveys Cellars has unveiled its new Sherry Flights – taster menus matching its peerless Spanish sherries with top-notch tapas. A Half Flight (£20) takes you through a range of mouthwatering pairings including Harveys VORS Fine Old Amontillado teamed with stuffed peppers; the £40 Full Flight goes more adventurous still.

For tapas/sherry combos visit the website.

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harveyscellars.co.uk

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A very happy birthday to Spyglass Restaurant (or the Barbie Boat, as it very nearly got named), which this year celebrates 10 years of top-notch waterside dining when it re-opens in late March The Spyglass story began when Bristol City Council’s Harbour Office put out a call for a boat to occupy an unloved quayside on Welsh Back. The mooring had lain vacant after its previous occupant, a lightship used as a bar in the filming of cult 1980 detective series ‘Shoestring’, sank so far into the harbour that it had to be towed away.

The initial plan was to pop up a café with a simple style and light building construction.

Instead, today’s Spyglass is a lovingly converted barge (it had previously worked the river Severn and Gloucestershire’s Sharpness Canal) flanked by a summer pavilion with canvas awnings. Its setting – beside the water, with the trees’ leafy canopy and the cobbles of historic King Street a short step away – is one of the harbour’s finest. The food is inspired by the best of Mediterranean and barbecue dining: the evocative name, meanwhile, came courtesy of the late Frank Dougherty, an architectural illustrator based on St Thomas Street on the other side of the water, who named the boat after the inn in Robert Louis Stevenson’s Bristol-set ‘Treasure Island’.

Prices on the menu may be family-friendly, but the large turnover and a concise, to-the-point menu still allows Spyglass to source quality local ingredients. Indeed, a large part of Spyglass’s enviable reputation comes from the freshness of its produce: fresh fare comes in daily, including fish deliveries from the ports of Newlyn and Brixham. The restaurant’s own kitchen garden supplier, meanwhile, delivers daily dew-fresh salads, while ice cream and sorbet will also be churned on-site, in six flavours, from this summer. Hence the place’s unshakeable popularity, with up to 800 hungry customers trooping in on a busy summer Sunday.

For its tenth summer season, Spyglass is refreshing its food offer. A rotisserie has been installed to cope with ever-increasing demand, and a counter kitchen has also been installed, both for the chefs to hammer out the restaurant’s brilliant chopped

salads, dips and flatbreads, and for visitors to perch with food and drink. You’ll find quality across the menu – from the pure-bred, slow-growing, grassfed Herefords whose meat goes to make the brilliant burgers, to the flavour-packed mussels sourced from the river Exe, one of the South West’s cleanest rivers.

Richard Hamblin, restaurant manager for both Spyglass and its sister restaurant Glassboat, sums up the place’s enduring appeal. “We’ve gone as simple as possible, basing our menus on festival-style barbecue foods and keeping our prices down and our choices as simple as possible. A limited menu speeds the service and ensures great value. It’s all about the joy of eating simple, well-sourced food.” s More: spyglassbristol.co.uk

The Harbourside Market continues every Saturday and Sunday along the dockside outside No.1 Harbourside and Watershed, with food, art, crafts, books and records the specialities. Stall holders range from local designer makers, to gourmet food experts and local literary purveyors. theharboursidemarket@gmail.com seven

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Spring eventS hear

Spring at Colston Hall Hip hop, folk, desert grooves... and classic cinema Legend has it that Tinariwen, the Touareg collective of former guerrilla fighters from the remote southern Sahara, traded in their machine guns for electric guitars when they chanced upon the music of Jimi Hendrix in the training camps of Colonel Gaddafi. Whatever their background, the collective’s rolling, yearning grooves and uncompromising messages of freedom have earned them two BBC World Music Award nominations, an international following and the admiration of discerning musos from Robert Plant and Santana to Thom Yorke.

The group’s newest, critically acclaimed album Tassili made album of the month in both Mojo and Uncut magazines. So it’s not just committed worldmusic fans, but anyone with an ear for new, unusual and captivating sounds, who should make a beeline for the Colston Hall, where Tinariwen show up in all their eight-strong glory on Sat 7 Apr. Their visit is perhaps the most eye-catching date in a packed spring at the Hall. Other dates for the diary include Breakin’ Convention (Thur 31 May), the acclaimed international festival of hip hop dance theatre now in its ninth year, and this year hosted and curated by UK hip hop theatre supremo Jonzi D. On Sat 12 May, meanwhile, you’ll need popcorn at the ready as the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra pay a live tribute to the great John Williams, whose

compositions have scored the likes of ‘Harry Potter’, ‘Jaws’ and ‘Indiana Jones’.

Just a few days earlier, the May Bank Holiday sees the return, for its second year, of Bristol Folk Festival (Sat 5-Mon 7 May), bringing with it some of folk music’s biggest names including Cara Dillon, Karine Polwart and the Grammy-nominated folk/world supergroup Afro Celt Sound System. The Shipshape Folk Desk is most excited, meanwhile, about the visit of the brilliant Show of Hands, widely acknowledged as the finest acoustic roots duo in England. As well as top performers, the family-friendly festival will feature morris dancers, mummers and maypoles, ceilidhs, workshops and a market.

Head to Arnolfini this spring to catch this sound and video installation (3 Mar-22 Apr) by London artist Sophy Rickett, inspired by the Severn Bore – the large tidal wave that runs along the great river during the moon’s equinox. Mixing video and surround-sound audio, Rickett’s immersive installation attempts to evoke the strange experience of following the Bore, as well as portraying the crowds that come down to the river’s edge to view the phenomenon. The artist will also be on hand to lead the next instalment (Sat 31 Mar, 1-5pm) of Mash Up, Arnolfini’s regular family art afternoon. Head down to Arnolfini on the first Wednesday of the month, meanwhile, and you’ll find irresistible moules frites on the menu in the café-bar from 6-8pm. Bon appétit, culture vultures!

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More: colstonhall.org / bristolfolkfestival.com

see

The Vanishing Horizon While much of the spring season at the Tobacco Factory is given over to the incomparable Shakespeare at the Tobacco Factory (‘King Lear’, to 24 Mar, and ‘The Cherry Orchard’, 29 Mar-5 May), its kid-sister theatre The Brewery is offering up a typically packed and enticing menu of touring fringe theatre. Our springtime pick is ‘The Vanishing Horizon’, an Edinburgh Fringe sellout show by Total

WaTCh To The river

Theatre Award nominees Idle Motion.

Using maps, paper aeroplanes and over 40 suitcases, IM’s physical and inventive show remembers the Roaring Twenties and the pioneers of aviation, when we began to carve our way through the skies, when flight was still impossibly exotic and Croydon Airport was the gateway to the known universe. From this colourful backdrop, the play unfurls the story of a woman on a journey to discover her past – a journey that takes her from the crowded airports of our world to another, resting far above the clouds.

“A little jewel of a show… propelled by real ingenuity,” enthused The Guardian’s Lyn Gardner, while The Herald noted that “the staging is a delight of hidden surprises and the ending is so heartfelt, it brings a lump to the throat.”

arnolfini.org.uk

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oFFer Wongs Get 20% off your bill (including drinks) when dining a la carte at central Bristol’s authentic Chinese restaurant Wongs this spring.

Just mention Shipshape when booking in advance. Offer ends 31 May: not to be used in conjunction with any other offer. NB Offer applies to a la carte menu dining only: does not apply to the £12 lunch or early evening menu.

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wongsbristol.com

More: tobaccofactorytheatre.com

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Spring eventS

See Green futureS The spring exhibition at Harbourside eco-centre Create examines Bristol’s possible environmental futures. ‘Living Memory, Future World’ (7 Apr19 May) features work by various Bristol artists, including Mark Simmons’ photographic portraits of Bristol elders (pictured) and immigrants alongside personal descriptions of the more sustainable lives they previously lived. Before that, during eco-homes weekend Bristol Green Doors (17-18 Mar), Create hosts a free drop-in session explaining renewable technologies. createbristol.org and bristolgreendoors.org

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pIC: MArk SIMMonS pHoToGrApHy

DrInK Global DrInKS at Za Za It’s not just the food menu that’s dizzyingly eclectic at Za Za Bazaar, the Harbourside’s thriving new global-fusion restaurant.

The drinks menu’s no slouch either, with some 300 drinks on offer. Cocktails include a Tiramisu Delight (espresso, vodka, Tia Maria, Baileys, cream): head down after work and get 2-for-1 cocktails (Mon-Fri, 5-7pm).

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zazabazaar.com

explore

Gorgeous Gorge wildlife Bristol Ferry Boat Company are seeing in the spring with another clutch of their hugely popular Waterside Wildlife boat trips Step on board and spend a blissful few hours cruising down the magnificent Avon Gorge in one of the Ferry Boat fleet, with brilliant Bristol naturalist Ed Drewitt on hand to point out the area’s natural marvels along the way.

So, what can you expect to see? Over to Ed: “Between the end of April and beginning of June, grey herons nest on the river near Shirehampton, offering us a glimpse into the tree-nesting habits of these usually unsociable birds. The later trips, meanwhile, often reveal the spiky ‘hairdos’ of the young herons as they stand on their stick nests. Cormorants use nearby trees for perching and you can usually spot the guanocovered leaves and branches first before seeing the archaic-looking profiles of these fish-eating birds.”

Spring is also a fine time to see the Gorge’s celebrated peregrine falcons. With the peregrine chicks hatching at the end of April, the parents will be out and about catching food and bringing it back to their young.

Wading birds are also very much a feature. “The early cruises may well catch redshank, lapwing and common sandpiper passing through on their way north to breed, while in June, early or failed breeding birds may be journeying back south. Songbirds such as robins, blackbirds and thrushes can often be heard over the gentle sound of the boat’s engine, and overhead we could spot anything from swifts and house martins to sparrowhawks and buzzards. Mammals are perhaps less reliable – but there’s always

the chance of a deer or a fox by the water’s edge.”

It’s a good idea to bring along a pair of binoculars, especially for spotting the peregrines in their vertiginous clifftop eyries. Tree-lovers will also find plenty to beguile: during springtime, the Gorge’s varied tree species will be in leaf, from the common beech trees to the unique, endemic Bristol whitebeam.

“The Avon Gorge provides a stunning landscape and its combined habitats of limestone grassland, woodland and cliffs allow flora and fauna to thrive,” Ed enthuses. “Its microclimate is so unusual that it houses many plants and insects, such as the silky-wave moth and Bristol onion, which are either unique to the Gorge or found in very few other sites in the world.

“The spring trips are always fruitful, because birds are busy migrating or breeding, flying back and forth collecting food for young or building nests. The trees and grasses are full of insects, a crucial food source for many of the bird species. And the light and temperature make for a very pleasant a morning or afternoon sailing down the Avon, seeing a familiar landscape from a completely different angle.”

Waterside Wildlife trips take place on Sun 29 Apr (9.45am-1.15pm), Sat 19 May (47.30pm), Sat 9 June (8.15am-11.45am) and Sun 23 Sept (9.45am-1.15pm), departing from the City Centre landing stage (Cascade Steps). Tickets: £19/£17 concessions. s More: bristolferry.com nine

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relive

pic: graham burke

‘Up the Feeder’ returns When Bristol author/playwright ACH Smith penned his 1997 masterpiece ‘Up the Feeder, Down the Mouth’, he subtitled it ‘The long life and sudden death of Bristol City Docks’ And that, in a nutshell, is the story told by Smith’s brilliant play: a dramatic account, in dialogue and song, of the 1,000-year history of Bristol’s docks, zooming in on its last years and painting a picture of life for the last generation of dockers as work began to wind down during the 1970s.

First staged at Bristol Old Vic that same year, the play then made a memorable revival in 2001, staged in the Industrial Museum and along Princes Wharf outside. The most

memorable moment of an extraordinary evening was the 1,000-tonne cargo ship docking outside, bang on cue, every night, not to mention a supporting cast of working cranes, steam trains, lorries and swarms of extras moving goods around.

Small wonder that the astonishingly ambitious show was a critical and audience favourite. The 2001 revival booked out its entire run before opening night, and Bristolians had to be turned away in their droves. The

Observer, in its review of 2001, called it ‘the single most magical moment of the year’.

The play also got its facts and stories bang on: Smith spent hours collecting tales from 50 exdockers and their wives. The resulting story was so true to life, and to the sad end of the working docks, that the playwright recalls seeing old men in tears after every performance.

Now, ten years on, Bristol’s Redcliffe Press have released a new edition of Smith’s celebrated play, complete with archive photographs of the docks and of that feted 2001 production.

Bristol docks may have gone, but ‘Up the Feeder’ remains a moving testimony to their long life and sudden death. s More: www.redcliffepress.co.uk

Dating, Grain Barge-style Speed dating too frantic for ya? Try out the Grain Barge’s new Slow Food Dating evenings: five courses, different partner each course. Monthly, £25. grainbarge.co.uk

sightseeing

Bus tours step up a gear City Sightseeing, operators of fun, informative bus tours of central Bristol, are looking at a busy summer ahead. The company has enlarged its fleet, which now consists of three state-of-the-art open-top buses, and is running tours right through to the end of December this year. CS’s 75-minute circular tour of historic central Bristol allows you to hop on and off at will, visiting historic and cultural hotspots as you go. Its team of passionate, knowledgeable commentators got the company nominated, ten

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last year, for Bristol Tourism’s Activity of the Year 2011 award. You can buy one-, two- and three-day bus tickets as well as a two-day bus/ boat combo ticket in conjunction with Bristol Ferry Boat Company.This year, CS will also be offering plenty of all-ages fun on board, working with storyteller Martin Maudsley and local pirate extraordinaire Captain Barnacle (pictured) on a variety of children’s pirate and storytelling bus trips. More info on these next issue. s More: citysightseeingbristol.co.uk Shipshape

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SPRING EVENTS EXPERIENCE

Tapas @ the Lido SEE MAYFEST This spring (17-27 May) Mayfest, the brilliant annual smorgasbord of visual, physical and frankly unclassifiable theatre, returns to BOV, Arnolfini, the Tobacco Factory and venues across town. Big draws include Bristol-based Mercurial Wrestler, who unveil their site-specific show about magical illusion, ‘Magna Mysteria’, and Belarus Free Theatre with their blistering Edinburgh Fringe hit ‘MINSK’.

Performer Bryony Kimmings (last seen with the warts-andall ‘Sex Idiot’) returns with another nakedly confessional show, ‘Seven Day Drunk’.

Updates: twitter.com/ mayfestbristol MORE

mayfestbristol.co.uk

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JOIN BRISTOL MILE The last weekend in March welcomes back Sport Relief, a vast nationwide programme of charity sporting events. Our fair city once again hosts the Bristol Mile (Sun 25), a fantastic running route taking in the Harbourside and Queen Square and featuring a full entertainment programme.

2012’s Mile hopes to better its 2010 predecessor, which saw 4,000 runners raise an impressive £1.1 million.

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sportrelief.com

In bars across much of Spain, the practice is to offer a small plate of something tasty with each round of drinks bought… and now the Lido, Clifton’s brilliant restaurant, spa and pool ensemble just a short hop up Park Street from the harbour, is following suit. Buy a round of beers, sherries or wines in the elegant Lido Bar between 5.30 and 6.30pm, Monday to Friday, and the team will treat you to one of their excellent homemade tapas, which range from marinated olives or sobrassada, a Balearic, paprika-rich sausage, to a fine Spanish tortilla or anchovy toast. Elsewhere, the Lido team will be making the most of any spring sunshine by sparking up the poolside barbecue. £20 gets your first drink, a choice of meat or fish and oodles of salads, dips and breads. First come first served, though Swim and Barbecue vouchers will be available on the website. Follow them on Twitter @lidobristol to get early news of future barbie plans. s More: lidobristol.com

Bristol harbour hosts its first-ever Chocolate Festival on Easter weekend (7-8 Apr). See page 21 for more SEE

Pinter & Beckett at BOV Two of the twentieth century’s most distinctive theatrical voices share a fine-looking double bill The Main House at Bristol Old Vic is set to re-open this summer, after a major three-year refurb that has uncovered much of the famous old theatre’s 18th century character. Until then, there’s plenty to lure culture-vultures into the theatre’s always adventurous Studio space.

Before hosting its share of Mayfest (see panel left), the Studio welcomes a hugely exciting double bill of short plays by two of the 20th century’s most

influential and uncompromising playwrights.

BOV have matched up a pair of one-act plays exploring memory, healing and the sensation of time – Harold Pinter’s ‘A Kind of Alaska’ and Samuel Beckett’s black comedy ‘Krapp’s Last Tape’ – for a six-week run from 5 April-12 May. Directing is Simon Godwin, whose last venture at the theatre was an astonishing rendition of Brian Friel’s mystical, evocative ‘Faith Healer’.

‘Alaska’ centres on a woman who wakes after 29 comatose years to a reality she cannot accept, relationships she does not remember and a body she no longer knows. The eponymous hero of ‘Krapp’s Last Tape’, meanwhile, is a 69-yearold man who spends his birthday listening to a recording of his younger self. But, after a life of failure, withdrawal and physical decline, the youthful idealism that confronts him makes the passing of time even more acute.

Possibly not the cheeriest evening you’ll spend this year – but, we’ll wager, one of the most captivating… s More: bristololdvic.org.uk

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Spring eventS Visit

Spike Island Open

PiC: ‘CARL Cox’ DEwAR & GiCquEL, (2008). CouRTESy ThE ARTiSTS AnD LoEVEnbRuCk GALLERy, PARiS

Popular open studios event headlines a busy spring at Spike Late spring brings with it an essential date in any Bristol art lover’s calendar. Spike Island, the vast former tea-packing factory turned artspace, houses some 85 artists, designers, filmmakers, animators and printmakers within its 80,000 sq ft: and on May’s first Bank Holiday, they throw open their doors and invite art-lovers and Sunday strollers in for a snoop around.

With dozens of open studios (like that of irreverent conceptual artist Anton Goldenstein), not to mention open-to-all art workshops and even its very own pop-up café, the Open is always a huge hit, luring in thousands of Bristolians every year. What’s more, Spike’s neighbouring artspaces Picture This, Bristol Diving School, Works|Projects and Studio Upstairs also get in on the act with their own exhibitions and events. You’ll be able to download a full schedule for this year’s Spike Island Open (4-7 May) from the website from early April.

A Bank Holiday mosey around Spike will also give you the chance to check out the artspace’s two current exhibitions, including a first major UK show by French duo Dewar & Gicquel (6 Apr-17 June). This splendidy off-kilter duo learn craft techniques from scratch and use them to create idiosyncratic works of art. Their subject matter is varied and unexpected, often making reference to forms of exoticism as filtered by European eyes – such as 19th-century Japan – as well as popular hobbies

Visit Vintage Market

including fishing, camping and boxing.

The artists plan to fill Spike Island’s central gallery with a mound of local clay, using it to sculpt a scene or tableau involving several male nudes. The figures will remain unfired, left to change throughout the course of the exhibition. This continues in the vein of recent works such as ‘Carl Cox’, a photographic work that involved a figurative, unfired clay sculpture of the iconic techno/house DJ being produced in the countryside, photographed and then abandoned and allowed to collapse back into the ground (see picture). s More: spikeisland.org.uk

“Some of the finest Indian food either of us had experienced”. So said the venerable food guru Mark Taylor about Welsh Back’s Myristica.

Head to the big-hitting Indian restaurant for lunch this spring and get two courses and a glass of wine for £8.95. More: myristica.co.uk eat anD Drink

On tap at the Tavern Look out for a brand new spring/summer menu at historic harbourside boozer The Shakespeare Tavern, coming soon… other news from one of Shipshape’s favourite waterside watering-holes includes the arrival of its very own Shakespeare Ale (3.9% ABV), which’ll be making regular appearances as one of the Shakey’s five cask ales on the bar. Or why not try the Shakespeare Quiz Night every Tuesday from 8.30pm? £1 entry, winning team takes all...

The Tobacco Factory launches its new monthly Vintage & Retro Market on Sun 1 Apr. The Vintage affair will be held alongside the regular market in the Tobacco Factory’s car park and beer garden: among the 20-odd retro stalls you’ll find vintage clothing, jewellery, ornaments, records, furniture and even a vintage tea room – not to mention the odd slice of retro entertainment while you shop. Entry is free.

MORE

tobaccofactory.com

❉

COMing sOOn BristOl’s Big green Week After a successful debut last year, this world-class week of big green ideas returns from 9-17 June, featuring a plethora of ecoaware talks, film, theatre, art and tours of inspiring local green projects.

Speakers will include chef, broadcaster and slow food champ Prue Leith, former Friends of the Earth Director Tony Juniper and Green Party leader Caroline Lucas, pictured.

More next issue.

MORE

biggreenweek.com

More: 0117 929 7695 twelve

Events(FINAL).indd 8

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24/02/2012 15:58

Spring eventS

CeLeBrate

Watershed at 30 Watershed, Bristol’s pioneering arts and multimedia venue, celebrates its 30th birthday this summer Watershed, Bristol’s pioneering arts and multimedia venue, celebrates its 30th birthday this summer. Watershed opened its doors in 1982 in the harbour transit sheds known as V and W Sheds – one of the earliest of the Council’s initiatives to get the derelict harbour back to life again – and quickly declared itself Britain’s First Media Centre, seeking to capture the shift in media at the point when satellite TV and Channel 4 were starting up.

Thirty years on, the place is very much more than a thriving arts/cinema complex and café/ bar – it’s one of the most important facilitators of multimedia art projects in the UK, a crucial resource for artists, filmmakers, animators and anyone wanting to push the boundaries of their

art form. The cinema side of the business is going as strong as ever – over 13,000 people trooped in to see award-winning silent movie ‘The Artist’ (inset) during February, making it the most popular of the 7500 films screened at Watershed since ’82. The ‘shed will be celebrating its first 30 years with a public event on 7 June – see watershed.co.uk for updates or check Shipshape’s summer issue.

Before then, a typically packed and eclectic spring programme includes the return of Encounters (4-25 Mar), Watershed’s short film and animation festival, with a showcase of nominated short films from the Oscars, BAFTAs, Cartoon d’Or and European Film Awards (Grant Orchard’s Oscar nominee ‘A Morning Stroll’, pictured).

Around the same time, a season of films by Contemporary Japanese Auteurs (14-25 March) showcases the cream of contemporary Japanese filmmaking talent, while Wednesdays and Saturdays during April will feature a retrospective for revered Czech puppet animator Jiří Trnka, dubbed ‘the Walt Disney of the East’. s More: watershed.co.uk

eat & drink

No.1 Harbourside This funky-yet-homely waterside café/bar/ venue opened in July 2010 with a view to supporting the harbour’s cultural shift towards good-quality local food, drink, culture and enterprise. And it’s quickly established itself as a one-stop-shop of local culture, hosting the respective HQs of Bristol Ferry Boat Company and, now, of upmarket cake supremo La Dame Gateau, not to mention a nightly programme of free live music, a menu of locally sourced ingredients and a growing weekend Harbourside Market.

Using regional suppliers such as Powells of Olveston, Bristol Beer Factory and Bath Ales, No.1’s angle is to keep everything local and good quality. Your lunchtime menu might include Frampton lamb stew Shipshape

Events(FINAL).indd 9

with homemade bread (£7), pan-fried Cornish mackerel or leek and Blue Vinney tart (both £6), all served with fresh seasonal sides and free soup with bread to start.

“Our approach is to use the venue imaginatively and offer it up for inspiring events especially with our suppliers and Bristol city neighbours,” explains Marketing Manager Lizzie Keates. The next example of that admirable ethos is a Tasting Event (26 Mar, 5.30pm: free, but book via ahoy@ no1harbourside.co.uk), to include a tasting session by the brilliant Bristol Beer Factory and a specially designed No.1 menu to accompany the fine ales.

It’s planned as a warm-up for a larger Harbourside Beer Festival, pencilled in for June. s More: no1harbourside.co.uk thirteen

24/02/2012 15:59

SPRING EVENTS SEE

Da Vinci in Bristol As part of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations this year, a set of exquisite drawings by the Renaissance master Leonardo da Vinci, held by the Royal Collection, visits Bristol as part of a short British tour.

‘Ten Drawings by Leonardo da Vinci’, which visits the Bristol Museum & Art Gallery (one of just five chosen venues) from 30 March-10 June, features a set of illustrations that reflect the striking range of da Vinci’s talents and activities.

Though trained as a painter, Leonardo dabbled in sculpture and architecture, engineering, botany, geology, mapmaking, hydraulics, optics and anatomy.

His main tool of investigation was drawing (in pen and ink, chalk and metalpoint), and his hundreds of surviving illustrations help build a picture of the life and work of this archetypal Renaissance Man. Included in the exhibition is a sketch for an enormous equestrian monument to Francesco Sforza, the father of the artist’s patron, the Duke of Milan, and a study for a painting of Leda, the mythical princess seduced by Jupiter

SEE OLYMPIC BUILDUP EVENTS

(both pictured). More personal is a sheet of studies of apocalyptic scenes, showing Leonardo’s fascination with destruction towards the end of his life.

A rare chance to see, up close and personal, work by one of the cultural titans of the last millennium.

More: bristol.gov.uk/page/museums-and-galleries

DRINK

Cocktails at Glassboat Its superb setting next to Bristol Bridge, with the light playing on the harbour water and the resident swans pootling serenely about, makes Glassboat one of the mellowest spots in town for a post-work or weekend cocktail. And the team on board have come up with some fine twists on classic cocktails for this spring – including a Rum Manhattan, which replaces the classic Manhattan’s whiskey with a fabulous Venezuelan dark golden rum, distilled from molasses in a copper potstill and then aged for 12 – 12! – years. The boat has also introduced a rolling series of themed wine suppers. Check out the website or follow them on Twitter (@GlassboatRest) for details of upcoming events, including an evening with the exclusive Henriot Champagne house. Tasting tickets start at £20, or for £50 you can stay for supper and meet the winemaker. Elsewhere, Glassboat’s early bird supper and Sunday Lunch offers (two courses £15, three courses £20) include such delights as pear, walnut, chicory and Roquefort salad, braised rabbit in a mustard sauce and roast rump of Ashdale beef.

More: glassboat.co.uk twelve

Events(FINAL).indd 10

Got the Olympics buzz yet? You will have by Tuesday 22 May, when the Olympic Torch pitches up in Bristol. The Torch will spend 70 days from 19 May to 27 July being relayed all around the UK, with 8,000 Torchbearers each covering a 300m section. As the first major city on the route, Bristol’s evening will get a live national broadcast on BBC1’s The One Show from 7-7.30pm. The Torch will arrive in the city centre at around 7.20pm, having travelled its last leg by boat to the Amphitheatre.

From 3.30 to 10pm, Millennium Square and the Amphitheatre will host over six hours of free family entertainment.

There’ll also be plenty of activity out on the water courtesy of resident boats like the Pyronaut, plus performances from ace Bristol circus and street theatre troupes Cirque Bijou (pictured at the M Shed launch event last year) and Desperate Men. Check in with us next issue for more Olympics events – including news of Nowhereisland (nowhereisland.org), the fascinating boat-borne island state visiting us in September. bristol.gov.uk/ node/9931

MORE

PICS: FARROWS CREATIVE

PICS: THE ROYAL COLLECTION © 2012, HER MAJESTY QUEEN ELIZABETH II.

Exquisite drawings at Bristol Museum this spring

Shipshape

24/02/2012 15:59

all singing all dancing rock&pop leftfield classical education comedy

saturday 7 april tinariwen

friday 18 may ukulele orchestra of great britain

Legend has it that Tinariwen, the Touareg collective of former guerilla fighters from remote South Sahara, traded in their machine guns for electric guitars when they chanced upon the music of Jimi Hendrix in the training camps of Colonel Gaddafi. The kings of desert blues.

8pm, Tickets: £18.50

Blending serious musical discipline with a fine sense of the absurd, the Ukes have found the elusive common ground between Beethoven, Nirvana and Isaac Hayes: they all sound great on a ukulele.

7.30pm, Tickets: £24, £22, £20

saturday 12 may bso: saturday night at the movies

thursday 31 may breakin’ convention

From the wizardry of Harry Potter to the whiteknuckle rides of Jaws, Indiana Jones and Jurassic Park, expect up close and personal encounters of the filmic kind with songs from the Academy Award-winning composer John Williams.

7.30pm, Tickets: £24, £21, £19, £16, £14, under 26s £8, under 18s £1, BSO Vibes £5

The critically acclaimed Sadler’s Wells festival of hip hop dance theatre is back with a jawdropping show. Includes performances from the stunning Clash 66 and current bboy world champions Vagabonds Crew, as well as live graffiti, DJs, beatboxers and break jams.

7.30pm, Tickets: £18, concessions £10

box office +44 (0)117 922 3686 www.colstonhall.org

Bristol Music trust ‘putting music at the heart of Bristol life’

www.lidobristol.com

spring Swim & Massage

Combine a swim and a massage at the Lido Spa this Spring One hours use of the lido facilities followed by a one hour massage (including towel and robe hire) £40 - quote ‘lidospring12’ Available 1st March to 31st May 2012, Monday to Friday only.

p.15.indd 3

restaurant, spa & pool

24/02/2012 09:47

Brewe coup feature

MAIN PIC: JAMES@THEGROUPOFSEVEN.CO.UK

Brewing is back on the menu in Bristol, with the award-winning Bristol Beer Factory just one among a handful of thriving local brewers. Mark Sayers toasts a renascent industry

I didn’t know if it would work – I’d never done something like this before. But I put all my life savings into it, so it had to work. That motivated me, and still does.” The speaker is Simon Bartlett, Managing Director at Bristol Beer Factory, today one of the UK’s most thriving microbreweries.

Bartlett is talking to Shipshape from the historic brewery on North Street, Ashton where for the past seven years BBF has been brewing beer in the spirit, if not the exact method, of its Victorian on-site predecessors, the Ashton Gate Brewery.

Times are good at BBF now, with a slew of awards and national recognition as one of the UK’s very finest ‘craft’ brewers. But, as Bartlett is recalling, this all came from humble beginnings.

He began brewing on the site back in 2004, in response to a call-out from George Ferguson – architect, social animator and the man behind much of the renaissance of Southville, Bedminster and Ashton. “I had been building breweries all over the place for another company and wanted to come back to Bristol,” Bartlett recalls. “George bought the old brewery complex here and said in a newspaper interview, ‘Wouldn’t it be nice to put a brewery back in this building?’ So I wrote to him and said, ‘I can do that for you.’”

A WILD WHIM

“I bought the damaged brewery tower for a song, with the vague idea of adding to the mix of activity on North Street,” Ferguson says. “I had a wild whim to turn it back into a brewery to provide our own beer for the Tobacco Factory [another old industrial complex, 50 yards up the street, which Ferguson had already converted into a theatre, bar and more]. A journalist heard sixteen

Breweries.indd 2

me talking about it – at the bar, appropriately enough – and published an interview with me, which led to lots of enquiries from experienced and aspiring brewers. Among them Bartlett, a brewing engineer with a passion for craft beer, who was by far the most interesting.”

Bartlett duly got himself installed, inheriting some kit from a brewery closure up in Filton and ploughing his own savings into the resuscitation of the historic site. He worked alone in the building for a year: eight years on, Bartlett heads a team of 11, and Bristol Beer Factory is a thriving microbrewery (the term applies loosely to any brewery producing under 5,000 hectolitres a year: in 2011 BBF brewed some 3,700 hectolitres, or 650,000 pints).

Last year the company won Best Drinks Producer in the BBC Food and Farming Awards, in recognition not just of its beers but of its role in regenerating the surrounding area.

It’s the latest in a string of awards for BBF – the company’s Milk Stout (like Sunrise, a name conserved from the old Ashton Gate days) has twice won Beer of the Festival at the annual Bristol Beer Festival.

For Ferguson, BBF’s success is twofold.

“As an architect interested in place-making, I believe that beer-making, along with great food, can play an important role in regenerating an area. Pubs have always been the heart of any community and we feel there should be local beers to go in them. But it’s not just about the ales we create; it’s also about being part of the local community and economy. The brewery,

and now Mark’s bakery [Mark’s Bread] next door, both contribute to making North Street relatively resilient against the growing attack from the massive national multiples and global brands. And it’s so satisfying that after eight years of graft and experiment we seem to be achieving national recognition.”

RENASCENT INDUSTRY

The Bristol Beer Factory is perhaps the most striking, though not the only story of a renascent beer industry in Bristol, a city once swarming with breweries big and small. From big producers like Bath Ales and Butcombe to thriving younger outfits like the Great Western Brewing Company, based in Hambrook just outside town, and the Avon Brewing Company, a Lawrence Hill outfit responsible for the malty Gurt Lush ale, these are good times for small and medium brewers.

Continued on page 18...

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24/02/2012 16:00

wer’s

FACTS & FIGURES Pints, pubs and smoked porter ales

650,000

11 pints were brewed

by Bristol Beer Factory in 2011

people work for BBF

100 years of brewing have taken place at the current BBF site

1,459 West Country pubs were owned by George’s Brewery when it was acquired by Courage in the 1960s

Clockwise from main: Barrels of Bristol Beer Factory’s best seller No 7 await transit; George’s brewery in its 1930s heyday; brewers from BBF, Arbor Ales, Zerodegrees, Bath Ales and Great Western Brewing toast their new joint brew Collaboration.

Shipshape

Breweries.indd 3

6 local breweries are working together to create Collaboration 2012, a 6% ABV smoked porter

fifteen

24/02/2012 16:00

TOP TWO PICS: WITH THANKS TO ‘MADE IN BRISTOL’ BY DAVID BOLTON (REDCLIFFE PRESS, BRISTOL)

feature

Right now, collaboration is in the air. Quite literally, in fact, in the form of Collaboration 2012, a 6% ABV smoked porter created by BBF and five other local breweries (Arbor Ales, Bath Ales, Great Western, Zerodegrees and Somerset’s RCH Brewery), which will be released in mid-March in time for the CAMRA Bristol Beer Festival (15-17 March).

Bartlett confirms that there’s been an upsurge in interest in craft and specialist beers over the past decade. “Drinks are beginning to go the same way as food has gone – people are increasingly going towards local, organic, artisan beers. More and more now, rather than thinking, ‘I just want a few beers this evening’, people will think ‘I fancy something really spicy with my meal, or something delicate’, or whatever it might be.”

Today, in short, Bristol’s brewing industry is as healthy as it’s been for a long time. You’d have to go back to the early part of last century to find as many healthy small brewers. And that was the culmination of over two centuries of impressive brewing diversity in the city.

Like most industrial cities at the time, 17th-century Bristol boasted dozens of small breweries. With minimal public sanitation, water-borne diseases like cholera and dysentery were big killers: the alcohol in beer killed off most of these diseases, as did the boiling of the water during the brewing process. Small beer was also produced in households for consumption by children and servants, and was a staple drink throughout the land.

As such, Bristol’s brewing industry thrived throughout the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, supplying beer for the city’s hundreds of pubs.

An early pioneer was John Hawkins, Lord Mayor of Bristol, who owned the Bristol Brewery, on Bath Street by Bristol Bridge, in around 1640. In 1730 Hawkins’ brewery was

bought by the slave merchant Isaac Hobhouse, whose sons built the Porter Brewery on the site.

That then passed in 1788 to one Philip George, who along with six other Bristol merchants bought the premises, along with a malthouse in nearby Tucker Street, and set up as The Philip George Bristol Brewery. George’s, as it came to be known, dominated the Bristol brewing landscape for a century and a half, swallowing up many smaller breweries across town.

BRISTOL UNITED

An 1883 edition of Kelly’s Directory (a sort of Victorian Yellow Pages) lists dozens of breweries, many of them concentrated around the harbour, from John Jeffrey & Co, trading at 40-41 Baldwin Street, to Richard Lewis on the site of today’s Ship Inn in Redcliffe. Elsewhere Bishop and

Butt, sited at Redcliffe Mead Brewery, was one of several breweries that, in 1888, amalgamated to form Bristol United Breweries, a major thorn in George’s side for some 70 years. In 1890, a year after forming, the newly amalgamated BUB moved into new premises on Gas Ferry Road. But in 1956 BUB was swallowed up by the rapacious George’s. The latter got its own comeuppance only five years later when they were acquired by the vast Courage. George’s owned 1,459 public houses around the West Country at the time.

The next four decades, however, saw a slow decline in brewing on the Bath Street site, and the brewery (by now owned by Scottish and Newcastle) was closed in 1999.

It was the end of an era for central Bristol – not least, as one local historian commented, for one of its most recognisable scents: “It was George’s brewery which provided the most dominant and long-lasting of the city smells. When George’s – and later Courage’s – was brewing, that was Bristol’s last real big smell. When the brewery closed down, it was like putting a light out.”

The whole area is now being reinvented as a complex of shops, apartments and offices that has managed to retain some of the site’s long brewing associations (see panel).

Another of the key Bristol brewers during the city’s 1800s heyday was, of course, the Ashton Gate Brewery. This small brewery was begun by Thomas Baynton and his brothers sometime in the early 1800s, and later (1865) acquired by a consortium for £30,000 and renamed the AGB. By the turn of the century AGB was brewing a range of beers and owned some 150 pubs across the region. But Ashton Gate, like most others, eventually came under George’s umbrella in 1931, and was wound up two years later (this

All Smiles: a lost Bristol brewery No inventory of Bristol breweries is complete without a mention of Smiles, the venerated local outfit that started life as a home brewery in a shed behind Montpelier’s famous Bell’s Diner.

Smiles founder John Payne – who chose the name because he didn’t want the giants at Courage’s to take him too seriously – helped set up Bell’s in the 1970s, and, splendidly, brewed the restaurant’s own beer in the back of the premises, ready to be drunk with the already feted food. Payne then found dedicated brewing premises in Colston Yard, at the top of a largely derelict Colston Street, in 1978. eighteen

Breweries.indd 4

Paying just a few pounds a week in rent and acquiring some secondhand brewing equipment, Payne soon got Smiles Best Bitter stocked in three Bristol pubs including neighbours The Seahorse, popular with Bristol Royal Infirmary staff, and The Ship.

In 1982 a prospering Smiles bought its first pub, the Highbury Vaults in Kingsdown. At its peak Smiles, having built up a reputation for quality and reliability within the real ale market, was supplying beers to a network of 130 other pubs across the West Country.

Then in 1991, the company opened a pub within its brewery. The Brewery Tap

was the first pub to open all day – although you had to wait until 11am for your first pint – and was dubbed ‘best new pub in Britain’ by CAMRA. The ’90s saw further expansion and pub acquisitions, and the brewery was bought for £2million by its own accountant. It was now producing 8,000 barrels a year (from 500 in 1978) and employing a staff of 115.

Come the late 1990s, though, the brewery had fallen on hard times, a victim to the growing competition within the real ale market as well as its over-zealous expansion. Then, early last decade, Smiles sold its portfolio

of 17 pubs for £5.8million, hoping to clear its debts and concentrate on beer production. At Christmas 2004 a struggling Smiles went into administration: its beers were then brewed by Walsall’s Highgate Brewery, who themselves went under in 2010. The Brewery Tap is now the Colston Yard pub, run by Smiles’ old sparring partners, Butcombe.

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feature

“We are a microbrewery and we still have to fight: if we take our foot off the gas we will disappear” Simon Bartlett, Bristol Beer Factory

word ‘craft’ with justification. “We could push on and take on bigger competitors like Butcombe and Bath Ales … but that’s not our direction. We want to go down the craft beer route, producing more varied and unique products, both in their presentation style and taste.”

Megabrewery status may not be on the agenda for BBF but there’s still room for growth. “I A DISCERNING CLIENTELE am making plans to triple the output from this “There’s been 100 years of brewing on this site, building,” says Bartlett. “I don’t want to move – so it’s great to have it up and running again,” we’re in a historic building and we’re part of the says Bartlett. “The number of breweries in Bristol has steadily shrunk over time, as the small regeneration of this area. I don’t want to leave this building and its heritage, so we are staying ones were soaked up by the bigger breweries, but it’s good to see now that small breweries like – I will just pack this place with stainless steel until it’s pushing against the ceiling!” s ours are starting up back again.”

Not that it’s all plain sailing. “Our unit costs CAMRA Bristol Beer Festival 15-17 Mar, are obviously much higher than the likes of Brunel Passenger Shed, Temple Meads, Bristol.

Heineken or Carlsberg,” cautions Bartlett. “We More: camrabristol.org.uk/festival.html are a microbrewery and we still have to fight: if Ahead of the Festival, Bristol Beer Factory will we take our foot off the gas we will disappear. be holding a Brewery Tour & Tasting on Tue 13 You have to be constantly marketing, changing March. More: bristolbeerfactory.co.uk your brews, staying on the ball.”

In fact, BBF’s ethos is not to enter the mass ale market – rather to produce interesting, unusual, well-made beers in relatively small quantities for a discerning clientele. Bartlett and his team work hard to keep abreast of ale trends and innovations around the world, and in Andrew Cooper they boast one of the UK’s very few beer sommeliers. In the office downstairs, meanwhile, a piece of A4 pinned to a noticeboard gives a tally of the team’s ideas for future brews, from sun-dried tomato and chilli to rosemary and black pepper.

And it’s working, with the company’s beers now seen in pubs, bars and shops in Bristol and far beyond. Their closest delivery is to the Tobacco Factory 50 yards away, and you’ll find the beers at other Bristol boozers including the Grain Barge, No.1 Harbourside, the Windmill and the Barley Mow in St Philips.

For now, BBF is a microbrewery on the up – but still a microbrewery, and still using the practice of buying up a competitor, taking their pubs and assets and closing them down has long been common in the industry). The rest of the century was quiet on-site, housing a tyre and rubber company in the 1950s and, in the ’90s, a printer’s – until Ferguson stepped in.

Shipshape

Breweries.indd 5

Pictured clockwise from top left: Two more scenes from the George’s brewery site, including (bottom) in its 18C incarnation as the Bristol Porter Brewery; Sacks of malt await the brewing process at Bristol Beer Factory. Bottom: The site’s brewing past has been incorporated into the look of Finzel’s Reach; George’s puts out flags for King George V and Queen Mary’s Silver Jubilee, 1935; Colston Yard – formerly the site of Smiles’ brewery, now a Butcombe pub

FINZELS REACH: ITS BREWING PAST The site of the vast George’s (later Courage) brewery on Bath Street, just across the Floating Harbour from Castle Park, is currently being developed as Finzels Reach, a high-end mix of office and shop units and apartments. And the developer, HDG Mansur, has striven to keep some of the site’s rich brewing heritage in evidence.

Throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, the two industries of brewing and sugar predominated on the site: and it’s the latter that gives the modern development its name. In 1836 a German merchant, Conrad Finzel, extended one of the existing sugar houses to create the Finzel’s Sugar Works, producing 1,000 tons of the stuff a week using his own patented processes.

By 1881, Finzel’s had closed, and the early 20th century saw its neighbour, George’s Brewery, expanding eastwards to swallow up the former sugar refinery.

The site, owned later by Courage and finally by brewers Scottish and Newcastle, was eventually closed down in 1999.

Mansur’s £255million development, known as Finzels Reach, has preserved several of the historic brewery buildings and facades.

When complete the 1 million sq ft scheme will comprise 399 apartments, 300,000 sq ft of offices and 87,000 sq ft of shops, cafes and leisure facilities, housing around 1,000 residents and 3,000 office workers.

MORE

finzelsreach.com

nineteen

24/02/2012 16:01

harbourside map

Map & ferry timetable Jump on one of Bristol Ferry Boat Co’s distinctive yellow and blue boats and see the Harbourside from a whole new perspective...

Hotwells route This service is daily from April 2012 (weekend service throughout March - see bristolferry.com for details) City centre

10.30

11.10

11.50

12.30

13.10

13.50

14.30

15.10

15.50

16.30

17.10

Millennium Sq./Arnolfini

10.35

11.15

11.55

12.35

13.15

13.55

14.35

15.15

15.55

16.35

17.15

ss Great Britain/New Marina 10.40

11.20

12.00

12.40

13.20

14.00

14.40

15.20

16.00

16.40

17.20

Pump House

11.30

12.10

12.50

13.30

14.10

14.50

15.30

16.10

16.50

17.30

10.50

Nova Scotia

10.50

11.30

12.10

12.50

13.30

14.10

14.50

15.30

16.10

16.50

17.30

Cottage

10.50

11.30

12.10

12.50

13.30

14.10

14.50

15.30

16.10

16.50

17.30

Mardyke

10.55

11.35

12.15

12.55

13.35

14.15

14.55

15.35

16.15

16.55

17.35

Marina

10.55

11.35

12.15

12.55

13.35

14.15

14.55

15.35

16.15

16.55

17.35

ss Great Britain

11.00

11.40

12.20

13.00

13.40

14.20

15.00

15.40

16.20

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17.40

City centre

11.10

11.50

12.30

13.10

13.50

14.30

15.10

15.50

16.30

17.10

–

Temple Meads route This service is daily from April 2012 (see above) Temple Meads

10.10

11.10

12.10

13.10

14.10

15.10

16.10

Castle Park

10.15

11.15

12.15

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15.15

16.15

Welsh & Redcliffe Back

10.18

11.18

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13.18

14.18

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16.18

Bathurst Basin

10.23

11.23

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Millennium Sq./Arnolfini

10.25

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12.25

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City Centre

10.30

11.30

12.30

13.30

14.30

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Millennium Sq./Arnolfini

10.35

11.35

12.35

13.35

14.35

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ss Great Britain/New Marina 10.40

11.40

12.40

13.40

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16.40

Millennium Sq./Arnolfini

10.48

11.48

12.48

13.48

14.48

15.48

16.48

Bathurst Basin

10.50

11.50

12.50

13.50

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15.50

16.50

Welsh & Redcliffe Back

10.57

11.57

12.57

13.57

14.57

15.57

16.57

Castle Park

11.00

12.00

13.00

14.00

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17.00

Temple Meads

11.10

12.10

13.10

14.10

15.10

16.10

17.10

No.1 Harbourside – ethical

Watershed – multimedia arts

MORE Including public trips and private hire, visit bristolferry.com

l l Grain Barge – great views

l Pump House (for Suspension Bridge)

l Nova Scotia (for Create Centre, and Tobacco Factory)

l Mardyke

Brunel’s ss Great Britain (for Spike Island) CROSS l

HARBOuR fERRy

Za Za Bazaar – global food

Mille (for Brist

l Bristol Packet HQ

l Marina

l The Cottage

New Marina l

l

Brunel’s ss Great Britain At-Bristol – interactive science

Spike Island – creative hub twenty

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Turn to the Shipshape directory on page 33 for opening times, offers and more on all of the destinations highlighted on this map

harbourside map

ChOCOlATe feSTIvAl This Easter weekend, the Harbourside becomes a chocaholic’s paradise. Bristol’s first Chocolate Festival (7-8 Apr, top of Cascade Steps, 10am-6pm, free) will feature stalls showcasing the lovely brown stuff in all its forms, plus family-friendly shenanigans, live music and choc-themed offers at many of the harbour’s best-known attractions. Chocs away!

More:

festivalchocolate.co.uk

❉

AT-BRISTOl ThIS SPRIng

Wongs – opulent Chinese

Castle Park (for Cabot Circus, Broadmead) l

Cabot Circus – shopping

For a fortnight over Easter, award-winning science exploratory At-Bristol explores the wonders of growth and new life (Mar 31-Apr 15). That’s followed (20-22 Apr) by ‘Face Britain’, a vast artwork formed from thousands of self-portraits, beamed onto Millennium Square’s Big Screen. See summer in, meanwhile, with the Summer Night Sky Planetarium (May 29), a tour of the heavens in At-Bristol’s Planetarium.

More:

l

at-bristol.org.uk

Colston Hall – landmark Glassboat – fantastic views

City Centre (for Colston Hall, Wongs, Cathedral, Park St and main bus routes) l

l

St Nicholas Market – huge

Temple Bridge l l Welsh Back (for Old Vic)

l l

Temple Quay (for Temple Meads train station) l

l Redcliff Backs

l Tourist Information Centre l l

Bordeaux Quay l

od

l The Apple Shakespeare Tavern – cosy

Architecture Centre l l Arnolfini l

Millennium Square (for At-Bristol and Bristol Aquarium) l

Spyglass – barbecue boat

l

l Thekla Mud Dock l

Severnshed l l riverstation Myristica – fine Indian dining

l Bathurst Basin l

The Ostrich l

Arnolfini – arts centre

CITy SIghTSeeIng Fancy seeing our fair city from the vantage point of an open-to bus? City Sightseeing Bristol run tours of the city’s most historic districts in their distinctive red two-storey buses, with a team of friendly and expert commentators to give you the lowdown on Bristol’s eventful past. Tours run seven days a week from April, and at weekends during March. They last 75 minutes, but you can hop on and off as you please. Harbourside stops include Create, Baltic Wharf, Brunel’s ss Great Britain, At-Bristol, Prince Street and Bristol Bridge. Later this summer, meanwhile, CSB will launch its ace-sounding pirate and storytelling bus trips for families.

More:

citysightseeingbristol.co.uk

nce M Shed – must-visit museum

Shipshape

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twenty one

24/02/2012 16:29

feature

Master& commander Mark Sayers talks to Tony Nichols, Bristol’s Harbour Master – and a man with an incredibly varied job description…

twenty two

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feature

Bristol harbour is such a historic area, and it could do so much better for itself. I’ve come here to help improve it: I want the public to see it as the jewel in Bristol’s crown.”

The words of neither a sharp-suited tourist officer nor a marketing guru, but a man who spends much of his life out on a boat, putputting around Bristol’s harbour.

Tony Nichols is Bristol’s Harbour Master, a job title that spans a wealth of responsibilities from waterside policeman via chief safety officer and events planner to water-level manager, with no two days ever the same. And, as he illustrates with this insight, Nichols also finds time to promote and champion the Floating Harbour as a place for everyone to enjoy.

DAY IN THE LIFE

Shipshape has approached the Harbour Master with a view to writing a ‘day in the life’ feature.

However, it soon becomes clear during a chat in Nichols’ Underfall Yard office, followed by a trip round the quays on one of the Harbour Office boats, that in this case there’s no such thing as a typical day at the office.

For one thing, Nichols’ job has grown in reach since he took it on only 15 months ago.

“When I first arrived, I was in charge of the entire locked-in area of water from Junction Bridge [where the harbour opens out into Cumberland Basin, by the Nova Scotia] to Netham Lock [where the harbour’s upper reach, the Feeder Canal, joins the River Avon]. That job already covers everything from legislation, health and safety, and ensuring that boats are navigating in the correct manner, to promoting the harbour.”

At the start of this year, though, the two Dock

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Masters at Netham and Cumberland Basin respectively retired, and their two teams have merged. As a result, Nichols is now responsible, in addition, for water management around the harbour – effectively making sure that water levels are kept constant. Cumberland Basin becomes tidal when the level of water in the river rises above the level in the Floating Harbour: when this happens stop gates are placed across Junction Lock, by the Nova Scotia pub, to prevent the harbour waters from rising (the depth of water in the harbour must not vary by more than 50cm), and the lock is then closed to navigation. A similar set of mathematics must be done up at Netham Lock, making sure that the correct volume of water enters the harbour from the Avon – too little water risks damage to boats; too much and flooding is the danger.

Elsewhere, Nichols’ day-to-day job includes patrolling the harbour ensuring that a wealth of bylaws are being observed. “We’ve got problems at the moment with people swimming in the harbour,” Nichols reveals. “While there isn’t the same risk of waterborne diseases as there would once have been [the harbour’s water quality is now tested every week], today’s dangers are different. If you jump in on a hot day, it’s not like a swimming pool: the walls are very high and there’s not a ladder to climb up.

You’re at risk of cold shock and of drowning, and boats may not be able to see you.”

A certain portion of summer weekends is spent negotiating with drunken revellers.

“We’ll often turn up on a Saturday afternoon to find a stag party bobbing around with several pints inside them. And you tell them that they shouldn’t be swimming in the docks and all you’ll get is a load of verbals!”

FACTS & FIGURES Bristol harbour in numbers

33 Floating harbour area (hectares)

2-10 Depth of harbour (metres)

69 bylaws relating to conduct

3 bodies have been found in the water since January 2010

Continued on page 25...

twenty three

24/02/2012 16:02

only free range chicken on the rotisserie

events at glassBoat Whatever the celebration, small or large, with work or with loved ones, Glassboat remains the considered waterside restaurant of choice for your event.

2012 Bristol’s summer BBQ restaurant opens late march Welsh Back Bristol Bs1 4sB tel 0117 927 7050 www.spyglassbristol.co.uk

PUBLiC TRiPS 2012

We have 3 distinct and characterful areas of the boat available for hire or take the whole boat for an exclusive event: Lower Deck p r i vat e d i n i n g s pa c e o n s e pa r at e f l o o r , m a x s e at e d 4 0 p e r s o n s Aft Deck fully glazed section, stunning vieWs, m a x s e at e d 4 0 p e r s o n s Lounge BAr p e r f e c t f o r c h a m pa g n e a n d c o c k ta i l e v e n t s , o c c a s i o n a l s e at i n g o n ly

bristol

ferry

trips • • • • •

boat co.

Lazy Sunday River Cruise Under the Bridge Harbour Histories Waterside Wildlife The Grand Tour

For full details and a check on availability please do contact us as below Welsh Back

Bristol

Bs1 4sB

tel 0117 929 0704 e v e n t s @ g l a s s B o at. c o . u k W W W. g l a s s B o at. c o . u k

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Book online now or call us: 0117 9273416 www.bristolferry.com

24/02/2012 09:58

feature

And as if that weren’t enough, Nichols is also responsible for ensuring that the harbour’s various annual events pass off well, and that a variety of groups get to use the water throughout the year.

all pics: James@thegroupofseven.co.uk

Wealth of experience

Nichols came to the job with a varied wealth of experience behind him. After a deck officer’s training at Southampton’s Warsash Maritime Academy, he spent 14 years in the Merchant Navy on board a variety of commercial boats and on land.

After jobs with Hoverspeed, as Chief Officer on their fast catamarans sailing from France to England, and on oil tugs at BP’s Coryton refinery, Nichols decided it was time to settle on land. “I’d got married and I wanted a more settled life, rather than two weeks on and two weeks off ship.”

After three years as Deputy Harbour Master at Rye, Nichols’ wife asked if he could get a job “somewhere nice”. Just four weeks later, Nichols saw the position in Bristol advertised on the UK Harbour Masters’ Association website, applied for it and won.

“The harbour is fantastic with some beautiful vessels – of course one or two could do with a brush up. We’ve got a long waiting

list for moorings in the harbour, so it’s a shame if some boats in the harbour aren’t as well looked after as they could be. We work very closely with boat owners to see how things can be improved. I’d just like to raise the game a bit.”

He’d also like to install new moorings and pontoons to house narrowboats, for whom much of the harbour, with its high walls, is unsuitable. This, though, is an aspiration rather than a commitment while budgets remain tight.

In short, he feels that, beautiful and well-loved though the harbour is, more could be done to show it off to the world. “We can do that by getting more and better quality boats in, improving our facilities and getting more moorings. Then you get a nice feel around the harbour, families coming down, getting on a boat, having a nice meal, spending money and keeping the local economy thriving.

“We are unique in the country in having docks right in the city centre – and we need to use them, improve them and promote them.”

More: bristol.gov.uk/page/ports-and-harbours

“We are unique in the country in having docks right in the city centre – and we need to use them, improve them and promote them” Harbour Master Tony Nichols

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twenty five

24/02/2012 16:02

You’ll find Filini at Radisson Blu Hotel Broad Quay, Bristol BS1 4BY, United Kingdom tel +44 (0) 117 934 9500 / www.filinibristol.co.uk www.radissonblu.co.uk/Hotel-Bristol

sustainable fish and shellfish at spyglass

2012 Bristol’s summer BBQ restaurant opens late march Welsh Back Bristol Bs1 4sB tel 0117 927 7050 www.spyglassbristol.co.uk

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24/02/2012 14:46

Kids’ stuff feature

Give your mini marvels a spring break to remember with this fortnight-filling selection of activities. By Tom Burnett

Clockwise from main pic: Under-fours tuck in for free at global foodie palace Za Za Bazaar; see early animation classic ‘Castle in the Sky’ at Watershed; and find out how our planet really works with At-Bristol.

1. Time Traveller’s life

Fun for all the family on the ss Great Britain this Easter, where you can dress up in stovepipe hats, bonnets and bustles and have your pictures taken in Victorian-style portraits. There are also travellers’ tales, inspired by a boy who travelled on the ship many generations ago. And don’t forget, your ticket entitles you to unlimited free visits for a year!

More: ssgreatbritain.org/whatson 2. World of Wonder

From March, visitors to At-Bristol can find out how the Earth’s volcanoes, oceans, rivers and vegetation are constantly renewing our surroundings. In typically hands-on style, visitors can track hurricane patterns on the interactive globe, present a weather forecast in the future and blast balls of air to investigate air currents.

More: at-bristol.org.uk/ourworld 3. Cranes, Trains and boaTs

From 24 March, visitors to M Shed will once again be able to take trips on the city’s largest moving exhibits. The cranes, trains and boats are operated by volunteers with plenty of stories to tell - they’re easy to find, just listen out for the train’s whistle!

More: mshed.org/whats-on 4. WhaT’s Cooking?

At Bordeaux Quay, budding chefs can take part in a wide range of child-friendly courses that will inspire them in the kitchen. These include a 2.5hour, hands-on cookery session, which focuses on seasonal produce, flavours and fresh ingredients, with three delicious and wholesome recipes cooked from scratch. Courses run throughout the year and take place at the Bristol School of Food and Wine, upstairs from the bistro.

More: bordeaux-quay.co.uk Shipshape

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5. flavours of The World

Za Za Bazaar has gone down a storm since it opened just before Christmas. Under-fours eat for free at the country’s biggest restaurant, with five-to-11-year-olds paying just halfprice. The choice of food is huge, and – trust us – the smells, sights and space are enough to keep even the most curious youngster occupied!

More: zazabazaar.com 6. To The harbourside… and beyond!

Take a trip aboard one of Bristol Packet’s boats to see the harbour, upstream towards Bath or stunning views under the Clifton Suspension Bridge to Avonmouth. Trips operate every weekend and daily during the school holidays, with departures from several points around the city centre.

More: bristolpacket.co.uk 7. inspired by a masTer

Bristol Museum and Art Gallery’s Da Vinci exhibition, which runs from 30 March until 10 June, will host a tour of 10 of Leonardo da Vinci’s finest drawings from the Royal Collection. On Tuesday 3 and Tuesday 10 April the museum is holding creative art workshops for families with older children. Now where’s my 3B pencil?

More: visitbristol.co.uk/events/exhibitions

8. CasTle in The sky

Young film buffs get the chance to enter a Victorian era full of sky pirates and steam-powered war machines in what is considered one of the best films of the animé genre from Japan. Join two young travellers as they attempt to find the mythical flying castle. The show is part of the Watershed’s Cinékids, and runs at 1pm on 24 March.

More: watershed.co.uk 9. voyage of The nuTjellynana

For children aged four and above, this out-ofthis-world voyage is complete with Angel Heart’s amazing puppets, fabulous storytelling and a cosmic soundtrack to boot! Three forgotten toys build a rocket ship and blast off to adventures in the far beyond. It’s £6 to see Nutjellynana, which runs on Sunday 18 March, at 11am and 1.30pm.

More: tobaccofactorytheatre.com/shows/latest 10. Treasure Trails and Walking Tours

These step-by-step guides offer a great way to discover the city, ensuring you see the best, most interesting, scenic and historic parts of Bristol. Hunt for treasure around the Harbourside, Old City, Redcliffe or Temple Quay, or take part in a top-secret spy mission in Clifton. The booklets are £5 each and are available from the Tourist Information Centre on the Harbourside.

More: visitbristol.co.uk/about-bristol/ tourist-information/tourist-office s twenty seven

24/02/2012 16:14

Tower Power feature

The Tower Belle is one of Bristol harbour’s iconic craft. Like many others, though, she has had her ups and downs. Shipshape pays homage to a historic boat with a busy itinerary, both day and night…

Every boat, it seems, has its day. Take a look at a few of the most celebrated and storied craft now resident in Bristol’s harbour and you’ll find that many of them had to go through a period of neglect and decay before reaching their current heyday. Take, for instance, the famous floating restaurant Glassboat, which recently celebrated 25 years of atmospheric, high-end waterside dining beside Bristol Bridge – but which, prior to coming to Bristol, was an unloved hulk of wood lying beached on some Gloucestershire mud. Or the Medway Queen, a historic steamer and war hero currently being restored in the Albion Dockyard – again, she spent decades rotting on Kentish riverbanks. The most striking example of all, though, is the ss Great Britain, now the most famous of Bristol’s flotilla of historic boats, but previously forced to spend decades scuttled on a Falklands creek.

The Tower Belle, beloved of clubbers and day trippers, jazz fans and tea sippers, has a similar tale to tell: after 50 years ferrying passengers along Newcastle’s and London’s waterways, she also lay fallow, this time on an evocatively named island in the middle of the Thames. For the past four decades, though, thanks to a rescue and constant maintenance by Bristol Packet Boat Trips, the 92-year-old Belle is one of the most recognisable and best-loved craft plying Bristol’s waters.

Clockwise from this pic: the Tower Belle wafts down the Avon on its way to tea and cakes at Beese’s; maintenance to the 90-year-old boat is ongoing; the men who built the Belle, Armstrong’s shipyard, 1920; in familiar surroundings on the harbour; a 1954 pleasure trip, sailing past Teddington, Middlesex.

for countries all around the world: and the company was going through something of a purple patch at the time, with orders coming in thick and fast to replace the many ships lost during the Great War. Among these huge battleships and cargo vessels, a small river steamer called the Wincomblee was completed and launched into the Tyne. She was originally named after the area around the shipyard, and was rechristened Tower Belle (after Tower Bridge) during her post-war service in London.

Just why this illustrious shipyard built a 70ft, 100-seat passenger launch is not known, although it may have been to carry dignitaries, to link the company’s two Elswick and Walker shipyards, or to ferry the foreign navy crews MADE IN NEWCASTLE The Tower Belle was built in 1920 by Newcastle to and from their ships. Whatever the reason, the Belle remained in Armstrong’s possession shipbuilders Armstrong Whitworth. Since until 1939, when she was acquired by the 1847, Armstrong had been building cargo and passenger ships, ice breakers, tugs and warships City of Newcastle, probably for use as a ferry twenty eight

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throughout World War Two. Then, in 1946, she made her way to London where, based at Westminster Pier under three different owners during the 1950s and 1960s, she ran public pleasure trips downstream to Greenwich and upriver as far as Hampton Court.

Then came the Belle’s unhappy chapter. The day trips were soon Shipshape

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er r

feature

being phased out as more and more post-war families were able to rely on the motor car for their leisure needs, and by 1976 the Tower Belle was lying unwanted on Eel Pie Island, in the Thames near Twickenham. Her saviour came in the form of Nick Gray, who had set up the Bristol Packet boat company three years previously and was already ferrying passengers around the docks on his Redshank narrowboat. He went to Twickenham to inspect and buy the boat, to add to his growing fleet. No longer river worthy, the forlorn Belle arrived in Bristol on the back of a truck, and was even dropped by a crane at this end, sustaining a hole and dents in the hull. After repairs, though, she was launched into the harbour later in 1976.

PLEASURE CRUISING

Gray’s Bristol Packet was, at the time, the first boat company to resurrect the lost art of pleasure cruising around Bristol. Since 1887 Campbell’s White Funnel Fleet of paddle steamers had taken Bristolians out of the city into the Bristol Channel and on to Cardiff, Barry and the Bristol Channel islands of Ilfracombe and Lundy.

Again, the advent of mass car ownership in the Shipshape

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early ’60s had finished off that trade, and the handsome Campbell’s fleet had been broken up.

There had also been a trade for smaller boats carrying passengers around the harbour and up the river to Mrs Beese’s Tea Garden, as it was then known, as well as Sunday afternoon jazz and beer trips to Keynsham. That trade also declined and the last pleasure boat, the Kingstonian, was phased out in the mid 1960s.

The appetite was clearly still there, though, and the Tower Belle quickly gained a following in her new city, running the first trips up the Gorge to Avonmouth for 15 years or more. She also ran to Beese’s Tea Gardens, the Chequers Inn at Hanham and Keynsham, via both scheduled public trips and private parties, often with a full jazz band on board.

Today she’s one of Bristol’s busiest and bestloved passenger boats, covering everything from school outings to 14-mile round trips up the Gorge.

Evenings, meanwhile, are given over to club nights hosted by local promoters like The Funk Boat, Ripsnorter and Soul Train, the later voted Best Night Out in the West by The Guardian. “At 90 the old girl can still cast her spell and host an inspirational night,” says Bristol Packet’s Luke Dunstan. “She’s a very elegant 1920s boat and people seem to really warm to her.”

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Proud to be working on Bristol Harbour Festival 2012 Event Organisers of the Year 2006/2007/2009 Carefully. Creatively. Meticulously.

Richmond Event Management Ltd 59 Prince Street Bristol BS1 4QH Tel 0117 9276614 Fax 0117 9221497 Email info@rem-events.com www.rem-events.com

Experience...

Bristol ’s most stylish

Fine Peking, Canton and Szechuan cuisine Fine Chinese dining for all occasions Extensive wine list l Business lunches catered for Fully licensed and air conditioned l A La Carte Express lunch menu available for business meetings Pre and post-show dining l Discounts for students Opening Times 12.00 - 2.30pm, 6.00pm - 11.30pm, 7 days a week Tel 0117 925 8883 Web www.wongsbristol.com Email info@wongsbristol.com Bookings reservation@wongsbristol.com Wongs Chinese Restaurant 12 Denmark Street, Bristol BS1 5DQ (Just behind Bristol Hippodrome)

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the finest 28 day aged steaks hot off the BBQ

2012 Bristol’s summer BBQ restaurant opens late march Welsh Back Bristol Bs1 4sB tel 0117 927 7050 www.spyglassbristol.co.uk

24/02/2012 13:37

feature

She’s part of the ongoing success story of the Bristol Packet company, who now run a variety of pleasure and educational/ school trips around the harbour and beyond as far as Bath and the Bristol Channel.

Dunstan’s parents and another couple, the Thomsons, acquired the company in 1981. Dunstan, who was two at the time, remembers an eventful childhood on and off boats. “We’d spend quite a few nights on board the boats at Bristol Bridge after a busy day ferrying schoolchildren around, followed by an afternoon trip to Beese’s and an evening trip with a jazz band, by which time I’d be asleep in the cabin!”

The Belle, at 92, needs plenty of ongoing maintenance. “She was a little bit patched together when we picked her up.

She needs work on her every year: slowly bits of the hull are being replaced, the rotten old seats were replaced. She used to have a wooden deck, which was falling apart, to the point where we’d always fear that someone in stilettoes would put their foot through the deck! She’s now got a brand new steel deck, and is generally in pretty good nick. The on-board generator means we can run a full PA system, TV, hot and cold food, whatever you want.

She’s now in a much better state than she’s ever been, and we’re hoping that she’ll run for another 92 years at least...”

Full steam ahead Bristol Packet’s Keith Dunstan is part of a trio of innovators working on the UK’s first hydrogen ferry Keith Dunstan, Luke’s father and a director of the Bristol Packet since 1981, has been working with Bristol fuel cell developers Auriga Energy and Richard Rankin of Number Seven Boat Trips to build Britain’s first hydrogen-powered boat. The 12-seater ferry, built in Weston-super-Mare, is to be launched on Bristol harbour this spring, and will spend six months plying the harbour as part of a pioneering project to investigate the long-term feasibility of hydrogen-powered shipping.

Bristol City Council has facilitated and part-funded the project – a brave decision during difficult financial times. Rather than a scheduled service, the ferry is more of a pilot project to see whether the hydrogen fuel cell, a carbon-neutral energy source, is ready for wider commercial use on boats.

It will assess just how much carbon dioxide emissions can be reduced by hydrogen

power and, it is hoped, put a commercial case for hydrogen ferries and boats – as well as informing and educating the public about this green, clean power source. “Shipping is possibly the greatest polluter in the world, and we are going to have to change the way we transport goods and the fuel that we use. This is an important early step towards that,” Dunstan explains.

The boat will refuel with hydrogen – which then reacts with oxygen to produce the energy to drive the engines – from a temporary fuelling station on the southern side of Cumberland Basin. “It’s a completely carbon-neutral means of transport, and its only by-product is water,” says Dunstan. “The hydrogen in the station is also ‘green’, having been acquired as a by-product from industry.”

The ferry scheme

complements a recent step taken by Swindon towards creating an ‘M4 hydrogen corridor’ between the two cities, following the launch of an open-access hydrogen refuelling station at the local Honda plant.

Swindon’s Honda factory will manufacture the company’s European hydrogen powered car, due in 2015. Bristol’s ferry will take the hydrogen fuel cell transport story one step further.

“Over the next decade hydrogen could be a key economic and environmental opportunity for Bristol and the west of England,” comments Dr Chris Tuppen, author of Smart City Bristol, a 2010 report on how the city could prepare for a greener future. “Swindon’s refuelling facility and Bristol’s ferry could, over time, see hydrogen take a key role in the low-carbon economy.”

MORE

auriga-energy.com/products

This pic: the new ferry takes shape.

Top left: the Belle puts in at Teddington Lock, 1950s. Below left: Tyne shipyard workers, 1921, the year after the Belle was born.

The Tower Belle is available for various functions. More: bristolpacket.co.uk/boats

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24/02/2012 16:35

Shipshape directory

Shipshape directory ArnolFInI CEntrE For ContEmporAry Arts 16 Narrow Quay, BS1 4QA Tel: 0117 917 2300/01, arnolfini.org.uk Opening times: Exhibition Spaces: Tue-Sun 11am-6pm & Bank Holidays; Bookshop: Tue 11am-6pm, Wed-Sat 11am-8pm, Sun 11am-7pm; Café Bar: Daily from 10am

At-BrIstol Anchor Road, Harbourside, BS1 5DB 0845 345 1235, at-bristol.org.uk Opening hours: weekends and holidays 10am-6pm; weekdays during term-time 10am-5pm. Open every day except 24-26 December toddler takeovers

23 march: super senses 25 may: Come rain or shine!

BrIstol FErry BoAt Co. For full details visit: bristolferry.com For a map of the service – complete with ferry stops and our new timetable – turn to pages 20 & 21 Public triPs now on sale!

the exciting new range of public trips are now available to book online. trips include ‘Under the Bridge’, ‘Harbour Histories’, ‘Waterside Wildlife’ and the ‘lazy sunday river Cruise’.

Whether you want to explore, learn or simply relax, they have something for everybody.

BrUnEl’s ss GrEAt BrItAIn Great Western Dockyard, BS1 6TY 0117 926 0680, ssgreatbritain.org Opening times: from 10am. Closing times are seasonal, with last ticket sales one hour before closing Open every day except December 24 and 25, plus second Monday in January

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Based at the heart of Bristol’s Harbourside, in a fantastic waterside location, Arnolfini is one of Europe’s leading centres for the contemporary arts. Arnolfini features a regularly changing programme, presenting visual art, live art and performance, dance, music, cinema, poetry and literature events and a busy education programme of tours and talks. It also boasts one of the best arts bookshops in the country and a stylish, lively café bar featuring an Italian-inspired and children’s menu. Free admission to the building, exhibitions and café bar.

With hundreds of action-packed exhibits, explosive science shows and a planetarium, At-Bristol is one of the UK’s most exciting interactive science centres and a whole day’s play! this spring, marvel at the ‘spring night sky’ in the planetarium, discover light in ‘the Glow show’ and explore new life this Easter with ‘spring Unearthed!’ Don’t miss the new exhibition ‘our World – no more Waste’ opening in may – present a weather forecast in the future and play with interactive critters to unearth how nothing in our natural world goes to waste.

these distinctive yellow and blue boats offer relaxed, cosy round trips and an efficient ferry service on two routes; one between temple meads and the City Centre (calling at Cabot Circus), the other from the City Centre to the Hotwells area. With better prices and fabulous private hire options, Bristol Ferry Boat Co. is the go-to place for your parties and events. Enjoy a Harbour pub tour or river trip to Beeses Bar & tea Gardens, sail into the Avon Gorge and under Brunel’s suspension Bridge or take your class on a journey of discovery with an Educational package. Whatever the event, Bristol Ferry Boat Co. covers it all.

new for may! our world - no more waste

public trips now on sale

Descend under the glass ‘sea’ and step back in time in the Dockyard museum! see, hear, touch and smell what life was like for Victorian passengers on board Brunel’s ss Great Britain. there’s plenty to do to keep everyone entertained at this multi award-winning attraction. In 2012 Brunel’s ss Great Britain invites you to explore the ship’s new displays, including a new sound-scape for the First Class Dining saloon and foodie past with themed events included in admission. tickets provide free unlimited return visits for one year.

Go to ssgreatbritain.org/whatson.

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Shipshape directory

CITy SIGHTSEEInG

Information Hotline 09067 112191

COLSTOn HALL

Colston Street, BS1 5AR 0117 922 3686, colstonhall.org Opening hours: Box Office: Mon–Sat 10am6pm; H Bar café: Mon-Fri 8am-11pm, Sat 9am-10pm, Sun 10am-9pm; H Bar Bistro: Daily 11.30am-3pm and 5-11pm

FILInI BAR And RESTAuRAnT The Radisson Blu Hotel Bristol Broad Quay, Bristol BS14BY 0117 934 9500, info.bristol@radissonblu.com filinibristol.co.uk Opening hours: Lunch – Noon-2pm (Mon-Sat) Dinner: 5.30pm-9.30pm (Mon-Sat). Last orders at 9.30 pm. 12.30pm-2.30pm (Sun)

GLASSBOAT Welsh Back, BS1 4SB 0117 929 0704, glassboat.co.uk Opening hours: Lunch – Tues-Fri 12-2.30pm; Dinner – Mon-Sat 5.30–10pm; Sunday lunch – 12–4pm early bird this spring

2-course menus at £15 and 3 courses at £20 from 5.30 to 7pm Monday to Saturday. Mention Shipshape for a complimentary glass of nV Henriot Champagne with all Early Bird suppers until the end of May 2012. Reservations required.

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Hop on one of the bright red City Sightseeing buses with a 24-hour ticket (or 3-day ticket) and let them show you the sights of this fascinating city, which is full of vitality and variety. Operating daily every 30, 45 or 90 minutes their guides will regale you with stories from pirates and princes to paupers and show you great churches, cathedrals and museums and the exciting Harbourside, the jewel of which is Brunel’s ss Great Britain. Ticket holders can receive a variety of discounts from Harbourside attractions and eateries including entry to At-Bristol and Coffee Beach on Broad Quay.

Colston Hall is Bristol’s premier live music venue and has seen the likes of the Manic Street Preachers, London Symphony Orchestra, Penguin Café, Staff Benda Bilili and Ricky Gervais perform in the past year. The city centre venue also offers plenty of eating and drinking options: H Bar Café serves a variety of wines, beers, cocktails, spirits and hot drinks, with its tasty Mediterranean food earning the café a spot in The Guardian’s top ten Bristol budget eateries. For a more formal experience, there’s H Bar Restaurant with its mouthwatering mix of Latin American and Mediterranean flavours cooked up by Humberto Benevenuto.

This stylish modern Italian restaurant and bar, set inside the elegant Radisson Blu hotel, offers the very best in contemporary, seasonal and fresh-as-a-daisy Italian cuisine. Flavour is the watchword on the menu, which uses a judicious mix of locally-sourced produce and the very best ingredients from Italy’s vast natural larder. Another strong suit is the restaurant’s impressive wine selection, with up to 360 bottles sourced from Italy’s various superb winemaking regions. Elegant wooden floorboards, huge picture windows and a feature glass staircase ensure that all that delicious food and wine is served in a suitably stylish setting.

Located on the floating harbour in the heart of Bristol, Glassboat affords spectacular views of the city: bridges, churches and of course the swans on the water itself. Whatever the celebration, small or large, with work or with loved ones, Glassboat remains the considered waterside restaurant of choice for Bristolians young or old. Glassboat uses only the best local suppliers and cooks classic dishes simply: oysters, whole grilled soles, rose veal and lobsters will all feature this season. Groups of up to 40 can be comfortably accommodated on the lower deck, the ideal private space for your event.

early bird offer

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Shipshape directory

GRaiN BaRGe

Mardyke Wharf, Hotwell Rd, BS8 4RU 0117 929 9347, hello@grainbarge.com grainbarge.co.uk Opening hours: Mon - Thurs: 12pm-11pm; Fri - Sat: 12pm-11.30pm; Sun: 12pm-11pm

LiDo ReSTauRaNT, Spa & pooL Oakfield Place, BS8 2BJ 0117 933 9530, lidobristol.com Opening hours: restaurant: 12-3pm and 6-10pm; spa: 7am-10pm; poolside bar: all day Poolside BBQ

Free glass of sparkling Lambrusco Rose when you mention Shipshape at one of their BBQ events. Follow them @lidobristol to check when they’ll be firing up this Spring.

M SheD Princes Wharf, Wapping Rd, Bristol BS1 4RN 0117 352 6600, info@mshed.org, www.mshed.org Opening hours: Tuesday - Friday, 10am-5pm Closed Monday (except Bank Holidays) Saturdays, Sundays and Bank Holiday Mondays: 10am-6pm Don’t miss the well-stocked shop and the stunning Harbourside views from its cafe and terrace.

From 24/25 March you can ride on the dockside cranes, boats and steam train on weekends.

The MaTThew

When in Bristol check website for mooring location 0117 927 6868, matthew.co.uk

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The historic Grain Barge, moored on hotwell Road, has a panoramic view of Brunel’s ss Great Britain down to Cumberland Basin, both from its main harbourside bar and dining area, and from its ‘alfresco’ deck. The lower hold Bar provides a great venue for live music and can also be hired for private parties. at the Grain Barge they don’t believe in speed dating - they don’t believe 3 minutes is long enough to decide whether you like someone or not, so they’ve come up with Slow Food Dating: a 5-course meal, with 5 different people, only £25. email the Grain Barge team at hello@grainbarge.com to find out more.

The Lido is a veritable oasis tucked within a courtyard of Georgian terraces in the backstreets of Clifton. a unique location where chef Freddy Bird presides over 2 floors of poolside dining. Feast on wood-roast scallops, brill or lamb in the first floor restaurant or enjoy the outdoor pool and soak up some early summer sun on the Terrace, where they will be hosting BBQ evenings on warmer evenings. The ground floor bar spills out on to the poolside in suitable weather; open for breakfast and for hot and cold tapas from midday every day.

it’s still not even a year old, but M Shed is already a firm fixture on our cultural landscape. The museum has three public spaces – Bristol people, Bristol places & Bristol Life plus a special exhibition gallery – and is splendidly housed in a building crucial to that history – a former 1950s transit shed rich in its own dockside stories. inside, you can take an interactive tour of Bristol’s past from prehistoric times to the present day. Big draws include an exhibition of Bristol’s experience of world war ii and an inventory of its many brilliant creations down the ages, in music, art, science, technology and more.

free drink at the BBQ

free entry every day!

a magnificent replica of a Tudor merchant ship that recreated the atlantic crossing by explorer John Cabot. he was searching for a sailing route to asia but ended up “discovering” Newfoundland. Get the best views of Bristol harbour from the deck on one of their regular public cruises – fish and chip suppers on board are extremely popular – or you can venture down the scenic avon Gorge under the Clifton Suspension Bridge. There are also offshore sailing opportunities and the ship is available for private hire – check website for sailing programme.

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Shipshape directory

51 Welsh Back, BS1 4AN 0117 927 2277, myristica.co.uk Opening hours: Mon-Fri 12-2pm (lunch), Mon-Sat 5.30-11.30pm (dinner), Sunday 5.30-10.30pm (dinner, last orders at 10pm) Spring offer

Enjoy lunch throughout spring and get two courses and a glass of wine for £8.95.

Must mention Shipshape when dining. Not available evenings, in conjunction with any other offer or for takeaway/delivery. the two courses can either be a main and a dessert, or a starter and a main. Soft drink alternative available. Offer available throughout March, April and May.

thE ShAKESPEArE tAvErN

68 Prince Street, BS1 4QD 0117 929 7695 Opening hours: Mon-Thur 11am-11pm, Fri-Sat 11am-12am, Sun 12pm-11pm

SPIKE ISLAND

133 Cumberland Road, BS1 6UX 0117 929 2266, spikeisland.org.uk Galleries open 11am-5pm Tues-Sun Café open Mon-Fri 8.30am-5pm, Sat and Sun 11am-5pm

SPYgLASS Welsh Back, BS1 4SB 0117 927 7050, spyglassbristol.co.uk Spyglass has a non-reservation policy for groups of less than 8. To book a table for a group of 8 or more please contact groups@spyglass.co.uk Opening hours: Everyday from 12 midday reader offer

Free glass of Sangria or tumbler of house wine for all guests who mention Shipshape.

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gazing serenely over welsh Back, Myristica is one of the highlights of the harbour’s impressive dining landscape. the menu features a range of beautifully crafted dishes from across the Indian subcontinent. why not kick off with baby squid deep-fried and tossed with bell peppers, chilli flakes and honey, before moving on to pista murgh (breast of chicken in a mild cream sauce with ground pistachios and saffron)? then round things off with a luxuriant chocolate samosa dessert and ice cream. watch this space, meanwhile, for Myristica’s brand new spring/summer menu, set to launch by Easter.

£8.95 lunch offer

the big news on the bar at this historic harbour hostelry (Bristol’s longest-serving – they’ve been pulling the pints here since 1775) is the launch of its brand new real ale, the aptly-named Shakespeare. You’ll find a choice of five cask ales, while draft ciders, premium lagers and wines are also well represented on the menu. Other new arrivals include a spring/summer menu (coming soon) and the popular Shakespeare Quiz Night (every tuesday from 8.30pm). Elsewhere, it’s business as usual at this handsome woodpanelled, nautical-themed pub, a favourite haunt for city workers, couples, boaties and students alike.

Spike Island is a centre for the production and exhibition of art and design based in an 80,000 square foot former Brooke Bond tea-packing factory.

Its year-round public programme features free exhibitions by local, national and international artists, as well as regular talks, events and activities for all.

Spike Café is open seven days a week, serving hot and cold drinks, snacks and homemade meals in a relaxed setting overlooking the river. Spike Island is also a busy working building, home to a range of artists, designers, students, creative businesses and other arts organisations.

their 10th anniversary season sees the offering at Spyglass reinvigorated. A rotisserie has been installed to relieve the pressure on the BBQ; a counter kitchen for the preparation of chopped salads, dips, flatbreads and ice creams will now all be proudly churned on the premises. the joy of eating simple, well sourced food with no concerns over getting hands dirty or making a mess. Bones and shells should litter the table and they’ll supply crayons and entertainment for the kids. Spyglass returns for another summer of relaxed waterside dining from the end of March.

PIC: StuArt whIPPS

MYrIStICA

free drink

for every diner

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PIC: STuArT WHIPPS

Shipshape directory

ToBACCo FACTory SunDAy MArkET

10am - 2.30pm every Sunday tobaccofactory.com facebook.com/tobaccofactorymarket

WATErSHED

1 Canons Road, BS1 5TX 0117 927 5100, info@watershed.co.uk, watershed.co.uk, dshed.net Cafe/bar opening hours: Mon 10am-11pm, Tues-Thur 9.30am-11pm, Sat 10am-midnight, Sun 10am-10.30pm

WongS CHInESE rESTAurAnT 12 Denmark St, BS1 5DQ 0117 925 8883, wongsbristol.com reader offer

Wongs are offering readers of Shipshape a 20% discount off the total bill when dining a la carte! Bookings are essential. Please mention Shipshape when booking. not available with any other offer. offer available until 31 May.

ZA ZA BAZAAr Open everyday between 11am-11pm (closed Christmas Day) Bristol Harbourside, Canons Road, BS1 5UH (Located next to Pero’s Bridge) 0117 922 0330, ZaZaBazaar.com enquiries@ZaZaBazaar.com facebook.com/ZaZaBazaar @ZaZaBazaar

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The Sunday market is a cornerstone of the buzzing Southville community, with up to 40 stalls offering affordable food and crafts including locally made bread, fresh farm food, home made cakes, chutneys, sausages and pies, as well as books, flowers, clothing and jewellery and much more. In a new development, from 1 April, a monthly vintage market will take place alongside the regular market. The first Sunday of every month will feature vintage clothing, jewellery, ornaments, records, furniture - and even a vintage tea room!

Watershed is the perfect social space on Bristol’s historic Harbourside, showing the best independent films from across the world. With three cinemas to choose from and a welcoming, relaxed café/bar enjoying unique waterside views, it’s the ideal place to meet friends, grab a tasty coffee or drink, enjoy a meal and watch a film. Come and try their Plot to Plate organic menu showcasing the tastes of the South West, or treat yourself to a drink before or after a film in the buzzing bar. For current film and events listings, visit watershed.co.uk.

Wongs restaurant in Denmark St is home to some of the best authentic Chinese cooking in Bristol – some even say outside China! The chef uses seasonal and local produce and the menu features traditional favourites alongside specials which could include fresh lobster with ginger and spring onion or roast belly of pork. Wongs offers a gourmet experience at a great price whether you choose from the a la carte menu, the fixed-price lunch or the pre-theatre special. Wongs is in the heart of the city, opposite the stage door of the Bristol Hippodrome, a few steps away from the Colston Hall, Park St and Bristol’s Harbourside.

offer 20% off your bill

Za Za Bazaar invites you to join them on a taste-tour of the world. Za Za Bazaar is perfect for anyone who loves the buzz of the night markets of the Far East, has a sense of adventure and an appetite for fun. Bristol’s finest fixed-price restaurant, serves a rich variety of global cuisine that guarantees to keep everyone happy, with food from America, Mexico, Europe, the Far East and India. Dishes are served in a sumptuous banquet style as the Za Za chefs provide a live performance, creating dishes from around the world right before your eyes using only the highest quality fresh ingredients. thirty seven

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feature

Peter Lord co-founded Aardman Animations with his university mate David Sproxton way back in 1972. After graduating, the duo moved to Bristol, Peter’s childhood home: their first major creation, the animated plasticine character Morph, was created and filmed at their early studios in Clifton Village, Hotwells and Kingsdown.

In 1990 Aardman moved into the former Fyffe’s banana warehouse on Gas Ferry Road, from where they began creating more ambitious pieces like 1993’s Oscar-winning Wallace and Gromit epic ‘The Wrong Trousers’. The company is still based on the site, which has been extended: a second site at Aztec West houses their larger filming projects. That’s where Peter has spent much of the past five years, directing ‘The Pirates!’ – Aardman’s latest digital animation spectacular and his first major directing role since 2000’s ‘Chicken Run’.

“Of course we have to be commercially successful, but we don’t feel corporate, and we believe in old-fashioned things: craft, building relationships, a certain sort of integrity” Peter Lord in front of the pirate ship from the film.

I ❤ Harbourside a great pool of talent here and lots of good things going on. And yet… culturally, I think Bristol punches slightly under its weight. There is a lot of talk about Bristol’s creative industries, and there are great institutions – Watershed, Tobacco Factory, Paintworks – but I want to see more.

I think Bristol is still a bit philistine. And some of the docks development is disappointing. We What are your memories of those early days So you felt at home down here from the start… should have had things like the Baltic Wharf or Sage in Gateshead, but we seem to roll over and down on the harbour?

We lived in Southville in the 1990s and I We’d been in Bristol since 1976, and had would walk across the bridge to work: I have a go for commercial expediency. Why aren’t there been moving around into ever-larger sheds to great affection for the harbour’s working parts, special public places down by the docks, instead of merely OK public places? Why isn’t there support our filming projects. When we came and I am sorry that so few remain. At the end a great art gallery, or a lovely park – because, down here, it was before the property boom, of [neighbouring] Hanover Place there were whatever Millennium Square is, it isn’t that. Why and there were lots of derelict buildings and engineering yards, with a skip outside full of do we have a car park and a casino there? semi-industrial paraphernalia around. When lethal sheets of cut metal. The doors would be we turned off Cumberland Road into Gas open and you’d see these guys at work on their Aardman is a huge global brand – and yet Ferry Road and saw the banana warehouse, I oily lathes. I liked the fact that some things you’ve managed to retain a quirky, nonthought: ‘Perfect’. Later on I brought my father still remained ungentrified. The Brooke Bond corporate feel. How? down here, and his jaw dropped. Even though warehouse [now Spike Island Studios] was he had spent years of his life in Bristol, he had empty, and the artists who later became Spike Aardman is still owned by me, Dave and Nick never really seen the docks because it was a Island were in the top floor of the McArthur [Park]: there are no outside backers, which is not working area back then – all timber yards and building. We looked at McArthur’s as a always easy, but it works for us. We don’t have railway sidings; no place for visitors. possible studio, but it was too much of a wreck to answer to anyone else. Of course we have to for us even then! be commercially successful, but we don’t feel corporate, and we believe in old-fashioned things: craft, building relationships, a certain sort of Has Bristol been a good home integrity. Our philosophy is to be open to talented for Aardman? people, be they designers, directors or storytellers.

It’s worked very well for us. I’m hugely attached to the place; there’s If we were merely business-minded, we’d probably make comic films year after year, but we like to encourage variety and eclecticism. And that’s not purely selfless – of course, we are also looking for the next Wallace and Gromit. But yes, there is a certain sort of idealism about the way we operate. s

pics: james@thegroupofseven.co.uk

Aardman, whose fifth full-length feature film ‘The Pirates!’ is released this spring, is probably Bristol harbour’s most world-famous denizen. Shipshape grabs a chat with Aardman co-founder Peter Lord

The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists is released in UK cinemas on 28 March.

More: aardman.com ten

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wapping wharf

car park cheap city parking Monday to friday Up to 1 hour

Saturday 80p

1-2 hours

£1.50

2-4 hours

£3.80

Over 4 hours

£7

week

£28

Month

£85

any period

£2.50

Sunday & Bank holidays any period

£1.50

Special corporate rates available for 5 cars or more.

Monthly season ticket enquiries: 0207 563 3000

To all our customers, please note that the car park will remain open and fully operational for at least the next two years whilst we build phase one of the wapping wharf Development. we will keep you informed of progress.

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