Done with the history of Bath, I decided to catch the train to Bristol for the day It is a 15 minute trip from Bath and given I had free parking in bath, the three or four pounbds for the off-peak return ticket seemed like a bargain. The train station in Bath is just at the foot of the hill leading inti town – it is a feeder line for the main route at Bristol and although you can go direct from Bath to Paddington without changing, it is only two platforms with a line each way – much like a suburban station in Australia. And it had that kind of feel too – a commuter station rather than a country station.  Bristol station on the other hand was more akin to Sydney’s central station with a maze of platforms. Exiting the station you soon realise iut isn’t really in the middle of town. You are greeted by buses advertising a 10 minute trip into the city centre and for a second I wished I  had caught the bus from bath. I looked up Google Maps and it didn’t seem far into town, even if it did at first look like the route was across wasteland. I followed the masses and was soon heading in the direction of the waterfront. Our last fleeting visit to Bristol was mostly spent wandering the old town looking for Banksy works i eating dinner at a pub. While I was determined to see a bit more of Bristol, I was also on the hunt for some of Banksy’s works we hadn’t found on our previous visit.

My stroll from the train station took me along a path past a revitalised industrial area now filled with offices, containers turned into studios and upmarket eateries. At the end of the block once I crossed the river, the timescale on the buildings changed dramatically – in front of me was a weatherboard building that was a seafood restaurant and a few steps further on surrounding a square were a row of brick terraces, with a cobblestone road in front – some one had sensible installed a modern stone footpath and cycleway between the terraces and the cobblestone road.  After about five minutes I came to the revitalised (if not also sterilised) waterfront complete with an array of international eateries including  a Cuban Rum bar with the infamous silhouette of Che Guevara giant sized on its window. Castro doesn’t cut such an interesting silhouette and the act of revolution rather than the running of a country always has a bit more romanticism about it I guess. The waterfront is the home of the attraction almost every city in the world seems to have now – the Bristol Eye, I am thankful my home town still relies on people to climb or drive up the surrounding hills for a view of the city.

Across the road from the waterfront is the Bristol Cathedral. Impressive enough as so many cathedrals in this part of the world are but it was the inclusion of a choir school on the grounds and the college, another semi-circular building with a green out front that were more interesting. And what I found most interesting is that the brass statues on top of the college roof (turrets?) were in fact unicorns. This is a city awash with creativity – apparently dating back hundreds of years., But I was also here on the Banksy trail. These days its less of a clandestine mission – you can get a spotters’ map from the tourist information centre (or in my case, perhaps with only marginally more credibility, the lonely planet guide. I traversed the back lanes behind the cathedral (being careful not to wander into the choir school grounds or someone’s back garden to find the Castles stencil at the back of the local library where the skips are. The stencil itself is just a semicircular written phrase “You don’t need planning permission to build castles in the sky”. From here it was back to the water front in search of another of the stencil artist’s best known works – Girl with a Peirced Eardrum. The work is located on the other side of the riven to where I was. Fortunately there is a cross river ferry – from where I was standing directly across to where the SS Great Britain is located. The trip across takes all of five minutes and costs a pound. You can walk for about 10-15 minutes and cross the river by a bridge but I gave the ferry a go. In these COVID times contactless passage is delivered by a mechanical drop of the back on the small craft – could seat about four to six people all outside –  and you tap your card against a hand held eftpos machine sitting behind the glass. I left the ship for a different visit and wandered the back lanes of what is essentially an arts precinct in search of the girl – I circled round a few times and eventually found it. And just in case you didn’t think the Banksy trail was commercialised enough, a hipster coffee van has set up directly across from the stencil. The coffee was good though and it seemed to be there just as much to service the local artistic community working in the converted sheds. It will be interesting to see how the stencil, which is on the side of a  what looks to be fairly dilapidated group of flats, survives the encroaching gentrification. Walking back towards the boat, I dodged a cement truck heading onto a building site of some new swanky riverside apartments. I have to say, some of the housing architecture on the waterfront is great – some not so great of course – but it will be interesting to see just how the local council manage the stencil. Two of them are already in museum spaces in Bristol but there is something appealing about seeing stencil art (or any kind of graffiti actually, in the environment it was created. Often times these works are as much about place as they are about the stencil itself and this is definitely true of many of Banksy’s pieces.

Having said that, my next stop was M shed, a local cultural museum that is also home to Banksy’s Grim Reaper – which was painted on the side of Brsitols nightclub boat – the Thekla (yes that really is a thing). Apparently Bansy had two attempts at the stencil – the first one being removed from the hull. The second time the piece of hull was removed and eventually put on display in the Mshed museum. This is a classic case of place and context mattering – the stencil which depicts death in a rowboat sat just on the waterline when the hulklk was attached to the boat. Now you need to read the museum exhibit notes to understand that context. And the Thekla? It is still operating, presumably with a new hull. The museum wasn’t just about Banksy though – it was an interesting culkrtural history of Brsitol from its neighbourhoods to its famous and not so famous residents. Maybe it is a sign I am getting old but I’m still not quite used to seeing curated museum displays of some of the cultural icons of my own generation. Along with Banksy, Bristol can lay claim to Aardman animations, the creators of Wallace and Gromit, Massive Attack and Tricky. There is also an interesting contemporary display about the history of slave trading in Bristol – a statue of a slave trader lauded for his philanthropy was torn down during the Black Lives Matter protests last year. The exhibition explores the history of the statue, the protests and asks the question what now. The actual paint covered statue lies down in the museum exhibit. [Aloha Steve and Danno – Radio Birdman – I was privileged to be able to see Radio Birdman play live at the Uni Bar with just a few other people in the late 90s just before  their Big Day Out. This track which also satisfies my retro TV itch is the first of theirs I remember. Also covered by 90s ska band The Porkers.]

Just outside the museum, Bristol’s edgy roots show themselves in the form of a street food container village. By now it was around 3pm and the little sunlight was starting to fade – I didn’t get the impression that the place was well frequented on a late autumn afternoon. Unfortunately I wasn’t quite feeling up to the trek to Stakes Croft, site of the 2011 riots here, which spawned a wealth of stencil art and graffiti, including Banksy’s Wild Wild West which depicts a teddy bear throwing a Molotov cocktail. Maybe next time. I did have the energy for a trip back to see well hung lover, which we had managed to find late at night on our last trip here.in January 2014.

From there, I headed back to the waterfront to find something to eat. Lo and behold, what did I find but a Christmas market. In mid0November. Dan would be appalled but I didn’t go for the traditional German fare. I looked towards something much more quintessentially British (and incredibly weird) – a Yorkshire pudding wrap. Essentially a great big Yorkshire pudding, flattened in a sandwich press filled with a baked dinner – roast meat of your choice, gravy and any other accompaniments you desire including stuffing, roast potatoes, beans and carrots and sauces (cranberry, apple, mint or horseradish depending on your choice of roast – obviously I went for beef. It also comes with a fork in case you want to deconstruct it – I did this partially with the potato. Potatoes of any kind don’t belong on sandwiches or burgers except if you are making a chip butty or sandwich where they are the only filling. I did mix my cultures though and washed it down with mulled wine (it was called mulled wine rather than gluhwein but same same. Perhaps mulled wine counts as British?

After my late lunch/early dinner – it was around 4:30pm – 5pm by now, I headed back to the station for the short jaunt to Barth and back to the guest house to chill before my drive to Minehead the next morning. Madness here I come.