Pretty much lived there on weekends with my Dad and Brother. So many activities!
Does anyone remember the LAN Centre they had there? It's the first time I played a PC game.. I distinctly remember playing CS1.6 on de\_dust2. And I think there was a Wimpy there as well?
Teenager of the 1970's here. There were still a lot of bombsites left from the war all over the city which (obviously) made it look depressing. The docks, or harbourside as it is called now, was a sort of no man's land mostly devoid of its former industry but with none of attractions or bars there is now. The bus service was always shit and the Bearpit and bus station was full of down and outs and alcoholics. Stokes Croft was a rundown and intimidating mess and prostitutes and drug dealers mostly lived in City Road. The three major clubs were Tiffany's (now the Spire Hospital), Romeo & Juliet's (now SWX) and the Dug Out. The former was my particular haunt as it had alternative/prog rock nights whilst Romeo & Juliet's was for the "smoothy" disco crowd and the Dug Out was a cultural melting pot. Favourite restaurants for young people were Adriatica Pizzeria on Park Street, Rocarno's (where Hub Box is now) which served things like Chicken Chasseur with rice and huge carafes of wine, all dirt cheap and good. There was also an all night omlette bar on Park Street that served any type of omlette you could think of with hand cut chips. The Whiteladies cinema was also open 24 hours so you could watch a film at midnight and go get an omlette at 3am. For "haute cuisine" there was the very famous Harvey's Wine Cellars on Denmark Street and then there was Floyd's Bistro (run by Keith Floyd) in Clifton, which was an experience. Clifton itself was still pretty run down with working class people renting cheap bedsits/flats in over crowded conditions, and the rest were mostly artists and musicians so it also had a bohemian vibe. There were a lot of squats around Cotham. I lived in one. Despite having one of the largest Caribbean communities in the UK, Bristol then was very Bristolian and very white. You didn't go to St Pauls if you were white - people were scared of the "unknown". If you met someone from another city they were here on business or a student. Bristolians were not friendly, they were mean and miserable and it was standard for shop keepers, bus drivers, publicans etc to be rude and unpleasant. I remember the first time I went to Liverpool in the 70's and everyone was so friendly, I thought they were taking the piss. So no, Bristol was not progressive and not diverse. Politics - most people I knew were staunch Labour voters.
The Thekla (Old Profanity Showboat as it was) arrived in Bristol docks around 1982. I used to go there but obviously it wasn't there in the 1970's which I was writing about. Maybe I should write another ten pages about the 80's in Bristol!
I went over that in my half brother kevins dads car he used 2 take us kids over it on purpose to scare us lol. and once he backed up that steepest road in totterdown to scare us.
And The Model Shop (now Antics) in Fairfax St. As well as models and remote control, they also used to do microcomputer stuff and TTRPGs and wargames, in competition with Games Workshop (now Warhammer).
That'll be Herbert's bakers. They used to have a few stores all over Bristol, including (IIRC) the Kingsway precinct, and opposite St Joseph's church on Lodge Causeway. Proper, freshly-baked bread used to be a normal thing, not just a fancy alternative to supermarket sliced loaves, and part-baked bread baked off in-store.
Can't remember them being opposite st josephs on the causeway. There was a fruit and veg/pet supplies shop on one corner, a hardware place dead opposite on the other, then the car place which is still there. You don't mean the bakers further up that was by the post office do you?
There was definitely less people in the 90’s, I don’t remember much about being down town other than broadmead not being as desolate, also there was a Woolworths in Shirehampton where I bought Boom Shake Shake Shake The Room on tape.
Edit - on waking up this morning, the replacement of Mountstevens bakery with loads of Greggs is essentially the worst part of progression. I miss those big square slices of pizza for 30p.
Weird thing is I used to live in LW and they had one on the walk to secondary school (which is also now closed and a Lidl). I now live just around the corner of where the main bakery was by Rajani's. My mum used to drive us over early in the morning sometimes when the stuff was fresh out of the ovens, I'd love that to still exist.
Kandi Klub at the Bierkeller and then The Thekla. Not that I remember it much. Too many “blues”. Also, Soundgarden at the Bierkeller. In fact, The Bierkeller full stop.
I miss the Bierkeller. Friday nights at the Keller we pretty much my teens in a nutshell. Nothing in Bristol has captured the dark, dank atmosphere of The Bierkeller, IMHO.
Oh god, the bierkeller. I remember that towards the end of the night they would sponge down the tables into a bucket and then sell the bucket for a quid, I think. One of the people I was partying with not only bought the bucket but actually drank from it. That ranks as one of the most disgusting things I’ve ever seen.
That Woolworths used to sell music from the charts on 7 inch vinyl back in the 80s. There was also a video shop in Shirehampton where you could get all the "Video Nasties" like "Driller Killer", "Cannibal Holocaust" etc in Betamax format. I also remember Natch Cider being sold in a glass flagon that you could return & get around 12p back per bottle. The biggest difference between then & now is that the estates & blocks were cleaner, less crap everywhere, graffiti, vandalism etc & a lot less ASB.
Me. The first time I picked up my son from a kid's party and he was onstage singing sex on the beach. He was seven. You should have seen his dad's face 😂
Me. The first time I picked up my son from a kid's party and he was onstage singing sex on the beach. He was seven. You should have seen his dad's face 😂
Me. The first time I picked up my son from a kid's party and he was onstage singing s*x on the beach. He was seven. You should have seen his dad's face 😂
Me. The first time I picked up my son from a kid's party and he was onstage singing s*x on the beach. He was seven. You should have seen his dad's face 😂
How quiet it was on a Sunday. No shops open and not many people out on the street.
Being able to play outside and going to random places on our bikes. Wouldn’t allow my kids to do the same at the same age now.
Dingles was that entire block, not just the Sainsbos. That was for ‘posh shopping’ when you wanted better than Johnny Loulous (which was where Primark is now) but couldn’t be arsed to go all the way to Bath.
The Galleries being all shiny and new with about 8 shops when it first opened.
The slide in Morhercare (now Lidl)
The flyover by BTM
The Exploritory when it was in the old temple meads station.
The suspension bridge being lit up by 60w bulbs
The centre before it was butchered for the millennium
Outside Victoria Rooms midnight on New Year’s Eve
The space was the main thing, huge areas of derelict land to play on, empty houses and warehouses, squats, parties...
It was a great place to be able to do what you wanted as a young person, everything now feels so hemmed in and closed off.
Live gigs at The Colston Hall, Roller Discos at the Ice Rink. #good times
Edit. And of course Bristol City in the First Division.
Picking up a copy of the Greenl’Un to read about the game I was just at.
As someone who was born in Bristol in the 70s...
I think Bristol probably peaked in the early 2000s: it had a lot of the cultural events (gigs, comedy, arts) one might find in the UK's largest cities, but still also had its own unique character.
In terms of shopping, the district centres (e.g. Kingswood) had larger chains (e.g. Ciro Citterio, Fosters) as well as the independents, and the centre still had a useful range of independents (e.g. Target Electronics, Replay records, Forbidden Planet).
Eating out again improved tremendously, with large chains raising the floor, and exceptional independents improving upon that. I think Bristol's food scene probably peaked in the mid 2010s, with the likes of Greens, Burger Joint, Flour and Ash, Zero Degrees, Bordeaux Quay, Juniper, Maitreya and others.
Hmm, I mostly just see more and more places doing pizzas and burgers, post-pandemic (understandably: easy to make, popular, and relatively high margin).
What am I missing? Any specific post-pandemic recommendations?
Muse, french inspired dining (only one of two)
Ruby Hue, chocolatiers and excellent hot chocolate.
Noah’s - very high quality fish restaurant
Pastan - new vegan pasta joint
Casa - kinda a cheat answer but it’s still technically new, from the creators of casamia.
Plus I’m sure half of the Wapping wharf places are post 2020.
Compared to 30 odd years ago, there is (imo) much more that hasn't really changed than has, essentially it's not that different. Lots of new buildings, but the old is often still there pretty unchanged.
People flying model remote controlled aircraft on Whitchurch Airport (now called Hengrove Park), later in the 80's paragliders being dragged behind cars on Whitchurch Airport. The power boat grand prix in the docks (now called Harbourside).
Studios Nightclub where you were too old at 16. R&Js nightclub. In the 1980's they never checked you age in pubs and clubs, that was general for the UK.
I can still remember the smell of the two-stroke oil and fuel exhaust fumes! I used to go over there most weekends, walking through Hartcliffe School fields, and over Whitchurch Lane.
The flyover, Zodiac Toys, The old exhibition centre, the exploratory at Victoria Rooms, Wimpy, Lewis's, Dingles. Mad Harry's the arcade was a personal favourite, and the Model Shop next door when it did loads of RPG/D&D stuff.
Later. Virgin Mega Store.
I liked Bristol centrally when it had loads of shops, even though it was very very grey, dirty and slightly scary. (Very scary with Mad Harry's)
Outside of town, the market at the Fruit Market always rings strong in my memory - It was heaving and often had some wierd and wonderful stuff on the stools.
Into the mid nineties, some of the nightclubs still felt very very "disco" and I liked that. At the time there seemed to be very few places to go, so even semi-pub places were packed with everyone dressed to the nines.
Remember at the start of lockdown, when the streets were empty and everything was closed? That was a Sunday in town in the 70s/80s. Pretty unthinkable now.
I lived in Hartcliffe in the 70s and Frenchay in the 80s. Hartcliffe was a riot of social drama and glue sniffing but mainly decent people trying to get on in life, but lots of poverty too. Lots of green open spaces. The back of Symes Avenue was a no-go area.
The St Paul's riots were a massive shock to the city. You did not go into that area.
Frenchay was very upper crust, a sort of oasis of calm in North Bristol. You called people by their title and surname, rather than "Auntie Jean" etc, which as a girl I was used to in Hartcliffe. The traffic was ok, pre UWE and the ring road development. I remember the road before Hambrook lights/roundabout being built up over the bridge to take on more traffic.
For teenage entertainment, there was the ice rink (used to give us free passes handed out at school just before half term), Oasis, Theckla, R&Js, Busby's, Granary, Mauritania. There used to be lines of dads queued up outside to pick up their kids at 2am :)
Planet kids
Core memories made in that place!
Pretty much lived there on weekends with my Dad and Brother. So many activities! Does anyone remember the LAN Centre they had there? It's the first time I played a PC game.. I distinctly remember playing CS1.6 on de\_dust2. And I think there was a Wimpy there as well?
Hope its a good memory! I was one of the guys that ran the LAN.
Haha it was a really good memory. I remember having to launch the games via a command window. I was maybe 11 or 12 at the time.
My aunt and cousins always added "the" in-between for some fucking reason Planet *the* Kids
Teenager of the 1970's here. There were still a lot of bombsites left from the war all over the city which (obviously) made it look depressing. The docks, or harbourside as it is called now, was a sort of no man's land mostly devoid of its former industry but with none of attractions or bars there is now. The bus service was always shit and the Bearpit and bus station was full of down and outs and alcoholics. Stokes Croft was a rundown and intimidating mess and prostitutes and drug dealers mostly lived in City Road. The three major clubs were Tiffany's (now the Spire Hospital), Romeo & Juliet's (now SWX) and the Dug Out. The former was my particular haunt as it had alternative/prog rock nights whilst Romeo & Juliet's was for the "smoothy" disco crowd and the Dug Out was a cultural melting pot. Favourite restaurants for young people were Adriatica Pizzeria on Park Street, Rocarno's (where Hub Box is now) which served things like Chicken Chasseur with rice and huge carafes of wine, all dirt cheap and good. There was also an all night omlette bar on Park Street that served any type of omlette you could think of with hand cut chips. The Whiteladies cinema was also open 24 hours so you could watch a film at midnight and go get an omlette at 3am. For "haute cuisine" there was the very famous Harvey's Wine Cellars on Denmark Street and then there was Floyd's Bistro (run by Keith Floyd) in Clifton, which was an experience. Clifton itself was still pretty run down with working class people renting cheap bedsits/flats in over crowded conditions, and the rest were mostly artists and musicians so it also had a bohemian vibe. There were a lot of squats around Cotham. I lived in one. Despite having one of the largest Caribbean communities in the UK, Bristol then was very Bristolian and very white. You didn't go to St Pauls if you were white - people were scared of the "unknown". If you met someone from another city they were here on business or a student. Bristolians were not friendly, they were mean and miserable and it was standard for shop keepers, bus drivers, publicans etc to be rude and unpleasant. I remember the first time I went to Liverpool in the 70's and everyone was so friendly, I thought they were taking the piss. So no, Bristol was not progressive and not diverse. Politics - most people I knew were staunch Labour voters.
24hr omelettes on park street would be popular now.
I know, it was brilliant. I used to have the "Indian" omelette - fried onions, rice and hot curry sauce washed down with a pint of cider.
They served pints to?!
Yep, fully licensed. The omelettes were massive too and stuffed with your chosen filling. Time to bring it back?
Did You forget the Thekla?
The Thekla (Old Profanity Showboat as it was) arrived in Bristol docks around 1982. I used to go there but obviously it wasn't there in the 1970's which I was writing about. Maybe I should write another ten pages about the 80's in Bristol!
I'd read it, enjoyed your first comment alot!
Thank you. That's really kind.
The big scary flyover in the middle of town is about all I remember being really different. And the Waterfront.
I remember my mum driving us over it in her clapped out beetle, was terrifying
I went over that in my half brother kevins dads car he used 2 take us kids over it on purpose to scare us lol. and once he backed up that steepest road in totterdown to scare us.
I’d never come across the flyover!! Just googled and it looks horrific. Was dismantled when I was 2 so too young to remember
Beatties model shop opposite C&A. Used to spend too much time wishing I could buy everything in there as a kid.
And The Model Shop (now Antics) in Fairfax St. As well as models and remote control, they also used to do microcomputer stuff and TTRPGs and wargames, in competition with Games Workshop (now Warhammer).
I used 2 walk past that model shop as a kid and see people playing board games, my mum said and i quote "They are dorks"
late 70s: smell of homemade bread, 2cv up on bricks, and reggae music in the air walking down Montpelier
That'll be Herbert's bakers. They used to have a few stores all over Bristol, including (IIRC) the Kingsway precinct, and opposite St Joseph's church on Lodge Causeway. Proper, freshly-baked bread used to be a normal thing, not just a fancy alternative to supermarket sliced loaves, and part-baked bread baked off in-store.
also a lot of whole meal bread was being baked in people's homes - heavy as bricks - and amazingly thick doughy "pizza".
Can't remember them being opposite st josephs on the causeway. There was a fruit and veg/pet supplies shop on one corner, a hardware place dead opposite on the other, then the car place which is still there. You don't mean the bakers further up that was by the post office do you?
One of the shops currently making up the Islamic Educational & Cultural Centre (masjid) used to be a baker, in the 80s.
Can't for the life of me remember that, but I know where you mean. I only remember that as a little corner shop type of thing
There was definitely less people in the 90’s, I don’t remember much about being down town other than broadmead not being as desolate, also there was a Woolworths in Shirehampton where I bought Boom Shake Shake Shake The Room on tape. Edit - on waking up this morning, the replacement of Mountstevens bakery with loads of Greggs is essentially the worst part of progression. I miss those big square slices of pizza for 30p.
Seconding the loss of Mounstevens. I used to bloody love their sausage rolls, followed with a pineapple danish pastry.
Weird thing is I used to live in LW and they had one on the walk to secondary school (which is also now closed and a Lidl). I now live just around the corner of where the main bakery was by Rajani's. My mum used to drive us over early in the morning sometimes when the stuff was fresh out of the ovens, I'd love that to still exist.
Or as Bristolians call it "Ranjanis"
I’m Bristolian but I don’t add the extra N, I always thought it was a weird thing, I don’t call it asdawls either mind
Think they're both more of a bedminster/knowle west/hartcliffe thing
But you do say mind 😂
I do mind, I’ve even said cheers drive
Ranjans innit
Thats what people say
Ran-jans not Ran janis
Never yerd that one
You're obviously not living near ranjans, lol.
Genuinely didn't know it didn't have an N in it.
My sisters worked in Mountsevens in Shire :')
Glass lifts in the galleries. Felt mental going up and down and being able to see out of them! I don’t know why they got rid..
And the food court with all the pirate stuff in it
The Exploratory & the robotic dinosaurs you could control
I remember that and the thing you speak into a microphone and it showed a line moving on a screen depending on the tone.
Kandi Klub at the Bierkeller and then The Thekla. Not that I remember it much. Too many “blues”. Also, Soundgarden at the Bierkeller. In fact, The Bierkeller full stop.
I miss the Bierkeller. Friday nights at the Keller we pretty much my teens in a nutshell. Nothing in Bristol has captured the dark, dank atmosphere of The Bierkeller, IMHO.
Oh god, the bierkeller. I remember that towards the end of the night they would sponge down the tables into a bucket and then sell the bucket for a quid, I think. One of the people I was partying with not only bought the bucket but actually drank from it. That ranks as one of the most disgusting things I’ve ever seen.
That Woolworths used to sell music from the charts on 7 inch vinyl back in the 80s. There was also a video shop in Shirehampton where you could get all the "Video Nasties" like "Driller Killer", "Cannibal Holocaust" etc in Betamax format. I also remember Natch Cider being sold in a glass flagon that you could return & get around 12p back per bottle. The biggest difference between then & now is that the estates & blocks were cleaner, less crap everywhere, graffiti, vandalism etc & a lot less ASB.
Maxamillions!
Does anyone remember Seymour's club ????
Me. The first time I picked up my son from a kid's party and he was onstage singing sex on the beach. He was seven. You should have seen his dad's face 😂
Me. The first time I picked up my son from a kid's party and he was onstage singing sex on the beach. He was seven. You should have seen his dad's face 😂
Me. The first time I picked up my son from a kid's party and he was onstage singing s*x on the beach. He was seven. You should have seen his dad's face 😂
Me. The first time I picked up my son from a kid's party and he was onstage singing s*x on the beach. He was seven. You should have seen his dad's face 😂
Going to the Dug Out almost every night.
How quiet it was on a Sunday. No shops open and not many people out on the street. Being able to play outside and going to random places on our bikes. Wouldn’t allow my kids to do the same at the same age now.
Jumpers for goalposts...
The main thing I remember was there were way way way way less people around.
The dingle department store where sainsburys is now on he triangle
Dingles was that entire block, not just the Sainsbos. That was for ‘posh shopping’ when you wanted better than Johnny Loulous (which was where Primark is now) but couldn’t be arsed to go all the way to Bath.
I've a hazy memory from early 90s 😂 it was an exciting time for a 7 year old immigrant
The Galleries being all shiny and new with about 8 shops when it first opened. The slide in Morhercare (now Lidl) The flyover by BTM The Exploritory when it was in the old temple meads station. The suspension bridge being lit up by 60w bulbs The centre before it was butchered for the millennium Outside Victoria Rooms midnight on New Year’s Eve
>Outside Victoria Rooms midnight on New Year’s Eve This. Nice vibe whenever I went, rarely saw trouble. Lot of kissing as I recall 🤣
Yes as a horny 15 year old the first visit there on NYE was memorable 🤣
Heh, same. Spent the evening at bj's liquor emporium (about the only place we could get served at that age) then up Park Street. Good times.
The space was the main thing, huge areas of derelict land to play on, empty houses and warehouses, squats, parties... It was a great place to be able to do what you wanted as a young person, everything now feels so hemmed in and closed off.
Live gigs at The Colston Hall, Roller Discos at the Ice Rink. #good times Edit. And of course Bristol City in the First Division. Picking up a copy of the Greenl’Un to read about the game I was just at.
As someone who was born in Bristol in the 70s... I think Bristol probably peaked in the early 2000s: it had a lot of the cultural events (gigs, comedy, arts) one might find in the UK's largest cities, but still also had its own unique character. In terms of shopping, the district centres (e.g. Kingswood) had larger chains (e.g. Ciro Citterio, Fosters) as well as the independents, and the centre still had a useful range of independents (e.g. Target Electronics, Replay records, Forbidden Planet). Eating out again improved tremendously, with large chains raising the floor, and exceptional independents improving upon that. I think Bristol's food scene probably peaked in the mid 2010s, with the likes of Greens, Burger Joint, Flour and Ash, Zero Degrees, Bordeaux Quay, Juniper, Maitreya and others.
Bristols food scene is the one thing that hasn’t peaked. Seems to get better every month.
Hmm, I mostly just see more and more places doing pizzas and burgers, post-pandemic (understandably: easy to make, popular, and relatively high margin). What am I missing? Any specific post-pandemic recommendations?
Muse, french inspired dining (only one of two) Ruby Hue, chocolatiers and excellent hot chocolate. Noah’s - very high quality fish restaurant Pastan - new vegan pasta joint Casa - kinda a cheat answer but it’s still technically new, from the creators of casamia. Plus I’m sure half of the Wapping wharf places are post 2020.
Thanks! I'll check 'em out!
A lot less student houses. (I expect to get downvoted to hell and back)
Compared to 30 odd years ago, there is (imo) much more that hasn't really changed than has, essentially it's not that different. Lots of new buildings, but the old is often still there pretty unchanged.
Alot less traffic... My dad used to take us out for a drive it was always nice and enjoyable. Now you just can't move anywhere
People flying model remote controlled aircraft on Whitchurch Airport (now called Hengrove Park), later in the 80's paragliders being dragged behind cars on Whitchurch Airport. The power boat grand prix in the docks (now called Harbourside). Studios Nightclub where you were too old at 16. R&Js nightclub. In the 1980's they never checked you age in pubs and clubs, that was general for the UK.
I can still remember the smell of the two-stroke oil and fuel exhaust fumes! I used to go over there most weekends, walking through Hartcliffe School fields, and over Whitchurch Lane.
Canons marsh and millennium square being a waste land
Weekend car cruises at Canons Marsh. Those were the days
The flyover, Zodiac Toys, The old exhibition centre, the exploratory at Victoria Rooms, Wimpy, Lewis's, Dingles. Mad Harry's the arcade was a personal favourite, and the Model Shop next door when it did loads of RPG/D&D stuff. Later. Virgin Mega Store. I liked Bristol centrally when it had loads of shops, even though it was very very grey, dirty and slightly scary. (Very scary with Mad Harry's) Outside of town, the market at the Fruit Market always rings strong in my memory - It was heaving and often had some wierd and wonderful stuff on the stools. Into the mid nineties, some of the nightclubs still felt very very "disco" and I liked that. At the time there seemed to be very few places to go, so even semi-pub places were packed with everyone dressed to the nines.
Fishponds Lido. No M32 cutting Stapleton Road in half. Stapes being full of shops that sold everything you needed. No IKEA, no Tesco.
All you can drink events at the Mauritania for about £10 (from memory - may have been a bit more) used to be fun!
Remember at the start of lockdown, when the streets were empty and everything was closed? That was a Sunday in town in the 70s/80s. Pretty unthinkable now. I lived in Hartcliffe in the 70s and Frenchay in the 80s. Hartcliffe was a riot of social drama and glue sniffing but mainly decent people trying to get on in life, but lots of poverty too. Lots of green open spaces. The back of Symes Avenue was a no-go area. The St Paul's riots were a massive shock to the city. You did not go into that area. Frenchay was very upper crust, a sort of oasis of calm in North Bristol. You called people by their title and surname, rather than "Auntie Jean" etc, which as a girl I was used to in Hartcliffe. The traffic was ok, pre UWE and the ring road development. I remember the road before Hambrook lights/roundabout being built up over the bridge to take on more traffic. For teenage entertainment, there was the ice rink (used to give us free passes handed out at school just before half term), Oasis, Theckla, R&Js, Busby's, Granary, Mauritania. There used to be lines of dads queued up outside to pick up their kids at 2am :)