I am Gary Parsons, the thesis author you mentioned. Great to see my work being read and used! The story of the Avon Metro is an interesting story which is still having ripples in Bristol’s transport to this day. The current Mayor of the city is currently promoting an almost identical idea to build an underground to Cottrell’s initial proposals before he moved onto a tram solution. It just shows that these ideas continue to go around whilst there is a lack of directed funding to see them through. Great video!
Hello Gary, nice to see you found this video somehow! I did consider trying to find you online and email you to say "hey I did this thing using your work", but I thought that might be weird! The thesis was extremely helpful, by far the best coverage of ATA I could find - the whole topic seems rather under-documented. Without it I guess I would have had to have hit up libraries for old issues of newspapers and such, as you did, and let's be honest, even if I had any access to academic libraries and resources, I'm too lazy to have done that :) Anyway, I am relieved to discover I have apparently not misrepresented your work in the course of distilling it for youtube!
@@PedestrianDiversions I am glad it has been of help. One of the reasons I chose to do it as a topic was exactly that. I had read about this tram system for years and felt it deserved a proper investigation. Do let me know if you want any advice or further information around the topic in the future. I would be glad to help.
Hiya Gary. Prompted by this informative video I located and downloaded your thesis. Great work! It's a pity most of the illustrations have been redacted (copyright reasons?).
@@jackmartinleith I didn’t know they had been redacted. Sound like something that is done when the university uploads it for exactly those reasons. Luckily I still have originals. I was lucky to have been lent one of the original sets of marketing materials by someone involved in the scheme so some of those illustrations are not in an archive.
Bristol native here, it's always been called 'the docks' by the locals, especially the older generations. I do agree that the Whapping Wharf redevelopment looks a better fit than the other similar projects (I used to walk past the buildings that were there before on my way to Bemmie) but the unstated downside is these new neighbourhoods are priced quite a way beyond the means of a typical Bristolian- surely the local character and culture is also worth preserving. Good informative video!
Excellent video. I am currently staying on the soon to be built on Baltic wharf campsite. I'm here to make a video on one of my favourite cities (for my Grandchildren) and I have always loved Bristol Harbourside and, almost, detested most of the rest of the place ruined by appalling past planning disasters. In fact when I lived and worked in Bristol. back in the late 70's and early 80's, I became active with the "save Totterdown" campaigns simply because the inner ring road was clearly a gross, obnoxious assault on what could be such a beautiful city. Thank you for pointing out what a blight appalling planning decisions can be not for people the city is meant to serve, but the motor car which should largely be kept out of the place.
I've just moved to Bristol and came across your videos when I was trying to find out about the history of the painted façades. Now watching Spike Island Regeneration - thank you so much for an informative and entertaining history. I'm in tune with most of your sensibilities (public-transport fan, mock-Tudor hater, shiny-skyscraper admirer) and appreciate the way the videos are personal yet nod to the need for impartiality. Also so thorough. I'm looking forward to the rest. Thanks again
can I just say, as someone who lived and really knew/remember Bristol in the 90s..... How the industrial lower-canal/harbor-docks/basin area is done up now is AMAZING! For those who are not aware, whilst really full of industrial beauty, the area had been in a state of advanced dilapidation for much of the last decade of the previous millennia... it is so great to see that which has survived so fully shine by its rough charm. and I do not begrudge the new container housing, for it, (if not totally historically accurate) along with the beautiful warehousesque steel & wooden developments, underlines the ambience given to the place. I understand also, why, most locals, consider the half of the harbor with the caravan park to be all low-rise in nature... there is a vital openness to that spot, where, the houses have a cadence from a higher-rise center to a low-rise area of small dwellings, accentuating, the warehouse-factoria's mastery over the skyline... if the choice is to be made, I believe the Bedminster side should get more 4-5 story zinc-Glass and wood housing around the red-brick buildings (whatever those historical landmarks are)... if they are not yet re-developed, should indeed be all kinds of housing and shops inside, linked by glass covered arcades, forming a vibrant extension to the central district...
I have never lived in Bristol, but seeing the way so many opportunities were missed with the transportation in this area makes my blood boil. Near where I live, we have Salford Quays, a similar dockside redevelopment starting in the 80s, and now has the BBC and ITV, as well as IWM North, and through which a part of the Manchester tram network is now passing through. It's been an enormous success, and plans to keep expanding the trams are always on the drawing board, as well as ongoing residential and business development.
The history of public transport in Bristol is a great example of how alignment between nimby appeasement and unwillingness to compromise leaves no one truly happy.
Brilliant summary of a very complex issue. I grew up in Henleaze and in the 1950s and 60s before the M5 was built, every Saturday in the summer holidays the holiday traffic heading for the south west was backed up at least this far (2 plus miles) from the old Junction Lock Swing Bridge at Cumberland Basin to get to the A38. This was the only river crossing and it was still being swung to let boats through at that time. That was why the new Plimsoll Bridge was so big, but nobody seems to have foreseen the impact of the M5 in removing all this traffic.
This video is a brilliant piece of storytelling, humor and education. I´m from the continent, and Bristol is a special interest of me. Thanks for giving me those insights.
Loving your work sir. As a resident during the 90s and working on regeneration projects in the inner city and central areas, I can confirm that the rivalry between Avon and City Council permeated all the way through to junior officers on either side. Much to the detriment of residents. The opportunities for a light railway / tram system were focussed on reducing commuter traffic from bordering council areas into central Bristol rather than improving neighbourhood connectivity and inevitably met local council opposition with little interest from developers in pushing an alternative like the DLR or Tyne Metro.
Do cambridge pls! I'd love this level of nuance for another city that has so much promise, and is now being touted for some of the biggest development over the next couple of decades
Great video! After 4 years down here it’s always infuriated me that the strip of land that the industrial railway sits on was being underused/the pedestrian path being closed. It’s a shame that the path was allowed into fall into disrepair, it would have been a great commuter route for pedestrians/cyclists, linking Spike all the way down to the Ashton Bridge by the archive building (which could allow for easy access to the university campus via the wide lane that stretches behind the allotments)
That metro train artist impression is soooo eighties ... Austin Maestro front, bus doors...even the roof on the train/tram stop is 80s style urban design.
Bristol is a complete nightmare to get in and out of and around, esp by car. I used to live in Kingswood and it would take me over an hour in the morning to travel into the centre or more than that if I was working in Clifton. Public transport is a joke and the main reason I drove into the center was that it was cheaper than the bus. Parking was cheap meaning I could park in the Galleries for £5. If you remember when the Metro bus system was finally finished the company that was going to run it had gone bust so it was left to First to run.
The problem with Bristol, is that on spring tides, the city comes within inches of flooding. When the city was a working port, it was important to be in the basin before the stoppers went on. These are lock gates situated under the junction bridge. Once the tide was at its full height, the cumberland basin lock gates were opened and the traffic spilled out in to the Avon.
You are producing a superb set of videos highlighting the failings of our town planners. Please keep it up👍 From my own perspective I would prefer them to be about 15 minutes long even if a subject is then covered in several parts. It makes viewing easier and comments can be more pertinent to the section rather than diving in or waiting until the end and forgetting what you wanted to say. IMO the most positive thing that came out of Bristol’s failed light rail scheme(s) was it didn’t result in a Canary Wharf / London Docklands style development. Mock Tudor while pretty naff is a better result. Unfortunately we have ended up with an expensive ring road through green fields that encourages even more car use while they are then discouraged from entering the City through ULEZ. Over the last twenty years or so on my travels I have seen many new tramway and cycleway schemes constructed in the cities in Europe with the City and Metropolitan Councils having the foresight, imagination and nouse to attract EU funds for integrated transport schemes and urban redevelopment. Regrettably, not Bristol. Too much idealism and infighting.
If you do end up making a video on the Harbour Railway, you might like to consider getting in contact with the M Shed or even the working exhibits' operations manager directly - there are a load of volunteers and staff who would love to talk about it, and you might be able to come and look around the workshop here.
I left Bristol for the Midlands over 20 years ago, so my opinion on what should or shouldn't happen there has no validity, but I do have family in the area, and do visit occasionally. I remember the 1966 Development Plan, and took it out from the library on several occasions in my pre-teen and early teen years. I remember thinking, at the time, that it must be a good idea, as traffic congestion in the city was atrocious. Anyway, as you point out, only bits of it came to fruition - the link road from the M32 down across Stapleton Road to Lawrence Hill being part of that and, I noticed recently, that was extended in a similar fashion to the original plan down to the A4 Bath Road. The Totterdown interchange never happened, but it didn't stop the Council demolishing huge swathes of housing, some of it on precariously steep roads, in order to make room for it. I believe a lot of that housing has been replaced, but I doubt you could rebuild the community that was lost so unnecessarily. As a car user, I would obviously be likely to have a different view to you, but I think you partially miss the original reason for the development of the Cumberland Basin Flyover scheme. Traffic flows were different back then, and ALL the main roads into Bristol were pretty much easily capable of handling relatively similar volumes of traffic. However, the A370 entering Bristol via Hotwells, and along Hotwells Road and on past the Cathedral and College Green, to join Park Street and flow out onto the City Centre, was the major entry for traffic from Weston-Super-Mare, Clevedon, Yatton, Nails and Long Ashton. The existing bridge crossings were insufficient and, remembering that when it was built in 1963-5, it was the lowest crossing point bar the Clifton Suspension Bridge over the Avon. The M5 Avonmouth Bridge was not finished until 9 years later in 1974. That bypass to the low-level swing bridge was a dire necessity in the early years, and I remember it well. All those roads underneath were busy when the main span was swung. You also need to take into account that there were several road junctions catered for, apart from the main route of the A370 from the SW, and the A4 Portway and Hotwells Road to the North. There was also the A3029 (A38 link) coming in from Ashton Gate, the A369 from Rownham Hill with the Portishead traffic, the Coronation Road traffic from the South side of the New Cut and the access to and egress from Spike Island. Of course now, with the anti-car policies of the local council, the traffic volumes differ wildly from what they were back then. It doesn't help that, if you want to enter or exit the city at more than 20 mph, your only option appears to be the M32. These days, I only ever come to Bristol to see family. I wouldn't, for instance, waste my time going there to see the S.S. Great Britain. And my opinion of the docks is that they are a mess. There is enormous history there, but you can't see it being celebrated much. There's far too much emphasis on the fast buck of food outlets and nightclub entertainment, or expensive waterside residential development. Compare it to the canal-side development in Birmingham, or Manchester, or the Harbourside in Liverpool. They have far more coherent strategies for their development. And, what is more, I can travel to both those places by train and be in the heart of the city, unlike Bristol, where you have to get a taxi or, god forbid, get on a bus to get to the centre. Saying that, where is the Centre? It used to be St.Augustine's Parade, with Broadmead being the shopping centre. Now I wonder. Just as an aside, the large warehouses seen in a lot of your shots of the Cumberland Basin area were originally bonded tobacco warehouses belonging to W.D & H.O. Wills, the cigarette and cigar makers, and there are bits of their buildings still preserved in Bedminster, where the majority of the work took place. Bristolians back in the 80's well remember the low areas at Cumberland Basin flooding on one occasion, because the warehouses were also flooded and tons of packs of cigarettes were dumped due to contamination. Of course, there were plenty of people prepared to steal the contaminated cigarettes and sell the ones that weren't actually water damaged out of their garage or the boot of their car. You mention the Underfall Yard, and that you may dedicate a video to it. If you haven't already done so, I would be very interested to see that, as my knowledge is rather brief in that area. I do know that it was named after the adjacent Underfall Dam, which is, I understand, the main method for controlling the level of the water in the Floating Harbour (or it was). Underfall may refer to the use of sluices at the base of the dam to release water, rather than relying on it overfalling as with a weir, or a traditional dam spillway.
I'm actually working on a video about the Totterdown demolition at the moment. Perhaps about halfway through filming. There's a book "Totterdown Rising" which covers it very thoroughly. I've also already done a video on the 'where IS the centre anyway' question - although it was not one of my better efforts IMO. You do make an extremely good point about the Cumberland Basin road system predating the M5 Avonmouth Bridge, must admit I hadn't considered that. I can't really agree or disagree too strongly with your thought that Birmingham, Manchester and Liverpool have done regeneration better than Bristol, since I've been to those places either very briefly or not at all, but it's pretty easy for me to believe! Bristol (council) is consistently frustrating. They seem to want to place Bristol in with that bracket of cities and from what I can see as an outsider it really isn't. They have trams, and arenas, while we get only empty talk of transport, for starters... Thanks for sharing all your thoughts, I always especially like to hear from people with a longer/deeper perspective on Bristol than my own relative newcomer take on things.
Regarding the Cumberland basin junction, it just needs to be simplified. You need a link between south bristol, the A370 and the A4 and there really isn't anywhere else for the junction to go. But what they built there is INSANELY big and complicated for what's needed. They decided to link every road to every road and give everything a sliproad so that everything merges seamlessly. The reality is the vast majority of traffic uses a couple of routes and so when the A4 is busy, the entire area just stops. If they ended up rebuilding what's already there, but with about 1/4 of the sliproads and more traffic lights, it would probably flow better and be a smaller blot on the landscape
See my other reply, but in short, the junction as it stands really was needed back then in the sixties, before the M5 and Avonmouth Bridge could bring in the traffic from North Somerset. I can remember the queue in the morning rush reaching halfway up the hill on the Long Ashton by-pass, even with the flyover scheme in place.
@@st0rmforce I'm not suggesting it doesn't need simplification. It's a completely different environment these days. Both the traffic flowing over it and the harbour traffic flowing under it have changed completely.
I'm a bit late to this video, and the channel, but really this is excellent and fascinating work. I'd subscribe as a reward, but I did that a video or so ago! I consider myself vaguely acquainted with Bristol since I grew up in Somerset, so some of this is just helping me flesh out a city I definitely haven't visited often enough; but there are striking familiarities with road schemes of the past/odd housing developments/what to do with old docks/magically vanished tram plans etc. where I now live, in Liverpool. If only we could tempt you to come north and have a poke around at the 'what might have been/what we actually got' stories up in the north west! You'd have to start with the 'how come it takes the same time to get from Bristol to Liverpool by train to go north via Birmingham or horribly out of my way by going east to London first?' 🙂
I am actually keen to do more vids from around the country but I think unlikely to be this sort of regeneration/transport/urbanism topic because I could not imagine mustering any credible analysis with little-to-no background/local's knowledge of a city (Liverpool might actually be the biggest English city I've never set foot in). More likely find some historic curiosity or noteworthy architecture or something.
@@PedestrianDiversions Fair enough; I suppose I ought to resort to the alternatives- at least in providing similar content for other areas, namely: find the person on TH-cam who’s done it already, or, (and this really sounds hard) do it myself! Sounds a bit like effort though, all that research and whatnot! 😂
The best idea for a central metro-system now, is have a reasonably fast, Venice-style, passenger canal boat, linking all the old ferry jetties as stations... it would link most of the historic center, possibly even as far as Temple-meads & Bedminster... there used to be a tiny tour boat running nearly all that route in 1995, and, I believe accessible boarding stations can be accomplished for the route rather well with what exists today..
I used to live in Clifton and then latterly Redland. Both of those plus Cotham, Montpellier and other adjacent areas were predominantly built with stone. Maybe the newer developments would look better if they had adopted the use of stone, but I guess that is an expensive material.
Perhaps the M32 Motorway could of gone straight into the city centre and end where it would meet up with the M5 motorway heading south towards Exeter. Or to have a motorway that would avoid Bristol but going west from M5 to M4 via Bath and to have new junctions and lay-bys.
Belinda Carr made a very good video on Shipping containers as buildings. Almost all are made from brand new containers and the buildings would be much more economical built from traditional materials. Not so attractive to Architects/hipsters mind. Great video though, really enjoyed it.
I have no football loyalties in the city and I haven't looked at the fruit market -> Rovers stadium plans in any detail, but from a general 'urbanist' perspective it seems like a pretty good idea to put a stadium there to me. Most of St Philips Marsh will likely be carpeted with mid-rise flats, always good to get a sort of 'anchor tenant' of something more civic or cultural when doing regenerations like that IMO. Lots of scope for owners to add hotels etc to boost club revenues; easy walk from the station for away fans; but I don't know how home fans feel, if it's considered too far from their heartland or what have you?
@@PedestrianDiversions The Rovers definitely need a new stadium as the Memorial Stadium capacity is limited to 10,000, yet on the rare occasions when they make it to Wembley they take over 40,000 fans with them. However, the Rovers are understandably tight lipped about their plans because every time a new stadium get mentioned in public, Bristol City Council (the clue's in the name!) start lining up their objections. I think the Rovers fans would be delighted if the old fruit market becomes their new home. The only criterion is that it has to be north of the river. I wholly agree with you that the St. Philips area would benefit hugely from a new stadium incorporating hotel, conference facility, restaurants and etc. It could become a new and much needed focal point for Bristol.
Cumberland basin was built so large as it would have been the terminus for a motorway that would have followed the line of the Long Ashton bypass and then joined the M5 at junction 20 (Clevedon). See Pathetic Motorways.
Visited the dock/harbour area a couple of summers back. While the area is undoubtedly a big tourist draw and a pleasant area to spend a summer afternoon, I think they've missed a trick in not building up. Sure, it's all "in keeping" with the old buildings but Bristol is a fairly large city, not some chocolate box village in deepest Somerset. Bristol should be celebrating its urbanity not striving to manufacture a fake pseudo-village. Planners can be notoriously conservative and will generally pick the safe option - the blandly inoffensive over the bold makes-you-think designs. While I'm all for a bit of living history, we can't build a country based on nostalgia and fear of change. That floating harbour and all the old buildings that have been subject to layers of legal protection from demolition were undoubtedly built on either virgin marshland or they demolished something even older. Would the harbour have even been built if the eco-heritage lobby was around back then? One final point, Bristol Airport, ninth busiest UK airport, is the only Top 10 airport found at the end of country lane and not served by at least one motorway. Not sure what the historical reasons are for this but it really does need a decent road from the M5.
In general principle that Bristol is already a fairly big city and might as well act like it instead of 'preserving' a chocolate box village that doesn't exist, etc etc - I quite agree. Personally, I came to the conclusion that it might be a fair compromise to leave the harbour more heritage-y, and pack some tall buildings in the nondescript industrial estate bits. But they're not even doing that. They'll propose something not-even-tall, like 15 storeys, and local opposition will knock it down to like 8 storeys. And then moan that its too hard to find a flat and rents are too high. It seems to me that in trying to please everyone we end up pleasing nobody... been mulling another video about that specifically but struggling with it, so it may or may not happen
Resisting the motorway obsession will prove, in the end, the wisest choice. As individual automobiles, even electric ones, will someday prove to be energy-inefficient, more public transit will be built. Having constructed mock-tudor blocks on top of the rails rights of way, they may need to go underground. Much more costly, but perhaps the only way to avoid destroying what is left of the historic city. Pity I won't live long enough to see it happen.
yeah it's an obvious topic that's definitely on my radar to potentially cover, but the "never gonna happen" aspect of it makes it a bit depressing so I've been avoiding it!
Unsurprisingly I've been considering a video on that. But to be honest I'm not sure if I can make up my mind. At first glance I was pretty impressed; I like the new streets, and the architecture isn't entirely generic, has clearly had some Bristol/site-specific thought behind it. The building nearest the bridge in particular looks quite distinctive although I have no idea where the supposed Bristol Byzantine influences are. To me it actually looks more like a modern take on the Dutch House than the building that's supposed to be a modern take on the Dutch House, does. The two buildings to the north are a bit bland and could be Bristol-y-er. Generally speaking I wish architects would more often design to give the appearance of a finer grain, even if the economics demands these big blocks on the inside, why not divide the facades to look more like a row of different buildings occasionally. Might sound strange but I'm also not entirely sure I like the wide pavements with trees and stuff on the High Street and Wine Street. I might've pushed up closer to the roads to create a more street-y street, and donate the space to the park / give the church more breathing room. Similarly I'm that seemingly rare breed who doesn't really think tall buildings are bad, I wouldn't have necessarily minded if one of the buildings was more like One Redcliff St height, if that meant more space donated back to the park/church. So yeah, can't really make my mind up.
Thank you for this, it's a really interesting breakdown of the issues involved. I just have 2 questions - you often criticise developments for not including shops, but those on the other side of the harbour did, but have proved very difficult to fill successfully with commercial uses. Also, with reference to the Western Harbour proposals, one of the great things about the Harbour is that you always have a view out to a green space at the end, Ashton Court or Totterdown. I've heard that that was a deliberate policy of the planning department. The development of the Western Harbour would close off most of that view. Anyway, keep up the good work.
hi Sue and thanks for watching / commenting. I possibly used the word shops a bit much, when I really meant more like 'anything other than purely residential that might motivate not-residents to visit', so a playgroup, dentist, library, cafe, etc. that said it probably doesnt change your point much as you say yourself 'commercial uses' in general rather than shops. not sure where you mean - around millennium square? or poole's wharf? I guess my thinking might be the M-shed - SSGB - Underfall Yard axis should create stronger footfall that along Hotwell Road for example. but to be clear I'm not trying to insist I have all the answers - it may well be commercial uses were definitely not viable. no doubt it's much, much easier to snark on youtube that some houses are boring, than it is to successfully launch a new business in a new mixed-use development! fair point also about the view to the green slopes of ashton court, that would be indeed be a visual loss if Western Harbour goes tall and dense enough to block it out. I guess what it comes down to is that I'd prefer to block the view OF that green with taller buildings on brownfield/city centre sites, than to build ON that green with low-rise suburban sprawl... I realise that's verging on a false dichotomy as nobody is actually proposing to build on ashton court but you know what I mean hopefully! above all I think it's stupid and infuriating to take either or both approaches (spreading outwards or building dense/tall) without building proper transport. and no, buses don't count, not even if you put the word "metro" in front of them! but I think I might retreat from covering these sorts of issues, a bit contentious and all too often depressing, I feel on safer ground harmlessly wittering about some 18th century canal or whatever ;)
@@PedestrianDiversions don't do that! You're coverage was very balanced, I thought. Our place overlooks Spike Island and the podcast made me see it in a different light. I'd like to hear what you think of the development of McCarthur(?) Warehouse site now. To me it seems ridiculously over-stuffed. Anyway, keep them coming!
@@sueross2850 from the outside I don't really have any problem with the scale of it. It seems to me pretty in keeping with Steamship House next to it (which I've just discovered from a quick google is only from 2010... I always assumed it was older) and Wapping Wharf and so on - and the more historical warehouse type buildings around the harbour like the Arnolfini and Bond Warehouses. From the inside I could imagine 'overstuffed' being a description I could agree with - to be honest I haven't looked at the floor plans of the flats in that specific development, but similar schemes in recent years do seem to have delivered a lot of very small shoeboxes, studios, single-aspect etc - arguably worse than the 60s tower blocks everyone hates. Earlier this year I actually filmed tons of footage around Bedminster Green, Whitehouse Lane, Mead Street etc, which is getting stuffed with similar mid-rise schemes as we speak / imminently. And I was going to do a whole vid about what sort of housing and cityscape this wave of regeneration is building and is it good or bad etc...but I have really struggled to turn it into anything coherent... I guess that's feeding into why I say I'm not sure about doing these topics. I'm always on eggshells with anything that could be taken as deriding someone's home (e.g. council estate) or dismissing someone as a silly nimby, at the best of times, but in this case I have such mixed feelings in the first place it's even harder to be opinionated. Like as someone stuck in 'generation rent' I am delighted with the idea of flooding the market with dense schemes with thousands of new flats, and crappy brownfield sites walking distance from the centre are the perfect place to put them. But on the other hand I look at the big student flat scheme soon to dominate the view from windmill hill, for example, and I do think it's a bit...questionable...it's not even near the uni for starters... so maybe I'm just a hypocritical nimby now...? so I go round in circle like that for months whereas the 'harmless' ones about old churches or whatever are a lot easier to knock out!
Nobody knows who you are! Keep going...it's an interesting subject and , as you say, there's lots going on here. Why not do a different podcast for each area?
Maybe a video of what happened commercially when Avon was dissolved. I always think Bristol lost a lot of decent commercial spaces to South glos (I am a South glos resident)
Containers - only new and singly-used containers can be used so you know from the manifest what the container has...contained, so there's no risk of contamination from some of the horrible things that travel by container.
Lonf form vs shorter form - why not do both? Chop the long vid into bite-sized pieces as well, so those who want them can digest them on the train to work, whilst the longer form is for those who prefer it :)
also... why are the tracks and right of ways of the industrial railway we have remaining considered unusable, have the system be a street-running tram where tracks do not exist... yes, it will not be a fast system, but it is not actually so far to go for an urban type tram not to sufficiently handle the network.
Brilliant video but just one thing. Your pronunciation of Avon. It's not like the Avon lady it's pronounced rhyming with "haven", coming from Welsh word for river.
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I am Gary Parsons, the thesis author you mentioned. Great to see my work being read and used! The story of the Avon Metro is an interesting story which is still having ripples in Bristol’s transport to this day. The current Mayor of the city is currently promoting an almost identical idea to build an underground to Cottrell’s initial proposals before he moved onto a tram solution. It just shows that these ideas continue to go around whilst there is a lack of directed funding to see them through.
Great video!
Hello Gary, nice to see you found this video somehow! I did consider trying to find you online and email you to say "hey I did this thing using your work", but I thought that might be weird! The thesis was extremely helpful, by far the best coverage of ATA I could find - the whole topic seems rather under-documented. Without it I guess I would have had to have hit up libraries for old issues of newspapers and such, as you did, and let's be honest, even if I had any access to academic libraries and resources, I'm too lazy to have done that :) Anyway, I am relieved to discover I have apparently not misrepresented your work in the course of distilling it for youtube!
@@PedestrianDiversions I am glad it has been of help. One of the reasons I chose to do it as a topic was exactly that. I had read about this tram system for years and felt it deserved a proper investigation. Do let me know if you want any advice or further information around the topic in the future. I would be glad to help.
Hiya Gary. Prompted by this informative video I located and downloaded your thesis. Great work! It's a pity most of the illustrations have been redacted (copyright reasons?).
@@jackmartinleith I didn’t know they had been redacted. Sound like something that is done when the university uploads it for exactly those reasons. Luckily I still have originals. I was lucky to have been lent one of the original sets of marketing materials by someone involved in the scheme so some of those illustrations are not in an archive.
@@jackmartinleith more than likely, people are copywrite mad these day's, even with stuff a century old and been in the public domain for years.
Bristol native here, it's always been called 'the docks' by the locals, especially the older generations. I do agree that the Whapping Wharf redevelopment looks a better fit than the other similar projects (I used to walk past the buildings that were there before on my way to Bemmie) but the unstated downside is these new neighbourhoods are priced quite a way beyond the means of a typical Bristolian- surely the local character and culture is also worth preserving. Good informative video!
Excellent video. I am currently staying on the soon to be built on Baltic wharf campsite. I'm here to make a video on one of my favourite cities (for my Grandchildren) and I have always loved Bristol Harbourside and, almost, detested most of the rest of the place ruined by appalling past planning disasters. In fact when I lived and worked in Bristol. back in the late 70's and early 80's, I became active with the "save Totterdown" campaigns simply because the inner ring road was clearly a gross, obnoxious assault on what could be such a beautiful city. Thank you for pointing out what a blight appalling planning decisions can be not for people the city is meant to serve, but the motor car which should largely be kept out of the place.
I've just moved to Bristol and came across your videos when I was trying to find out about the history of the painted façades. Now watching Spike Island Regeneration - thank you so much for an informative and entertaining history. I'm in tune with most of your sensibilities (public-transport fan, mock-Tudor hater, shiny-skyscraper admirer) and appreciate the way the videos are personal yet nod to the need for impartiality. Also so thorough. I'm looking forward to the rest. Thanks again
welcome to the city, and the channel :)
can I just say, as someone who lived and really knew/remember Bristol in the 90s..... How the industrial lower-canal/harbor-docks/basin area is done up now is AMAZING!
For those who are not aware, whilst really full of industrial beauty, the area had been in a state of advanced dilapidation for much of the last decade of the previous millennia... it is so great to see that which has survived so fully shine by its rough charm.
and I do not begrudge the new container housing, for it, (if not totally historically accurate) along with the beautiful warehousesque steel & wooden developments, underlines the ambience given to the place. I understand also, why, most locals, consider the half of the harbor with the caravan park to be all low-rise in nature... there is a vital openness to that spot, where, the houses have a cadence from a higher-rise center to a low-rise area of small dwellings, accentuating, the warehouse-factoria's mastery over the skyline...
if the choice is to be made, I believe the Bedminster side should get more 4-5 story zinc-Glass and wood housing around the red-brick buildings (whatever those historical landmarks are)... if they are not yet re-developed, should indeed be all kinds of housing and shops inside, linked by glass covered arcades, forming a vibrant extension to the central district...
I have never lived in Bristol, but seeing the way so many opportunities were missed with the transportation in this area makes my blood boil. Near where I live, we have Salford Quays, a similar dockside redevelopment starting in the 80s, and now has the BBC and ITV, as well as IWM North, and through which a part of the Manchester tram network is now passing through. It's been an enormous success, and plans to keep expanding the trams are always on the drawing board, as well as ongoing residential and business development.
this is unbelievably good content! You should give tours!
That would require interacting with people - not my forte!
There was going to be an Aardman museum-type thing, but the warehouse that stored all their props burnt down some years ago.
It's now a film school!
The warehouse that burnt down is in St Phillips Marsh. They’ve only just started redeveloping it.
maps.app.goo.gl/wZSahpsfrHwGkNJx9?g_st=ic
The history of public transport in Bristol is a great example of how alignment between nimby appeasement and unwillingness to compromise leaves no one truly happy.
Brilliant summary of a very complex issue. I grew up in Henleaze and in the 1950s and 60s before the M5 was built, every Saturday in the summer holidays the holiday traffic heading for the south west was backed up at least this far (2 plus miles) from the old Junction Lock Swing Bridge at Cumberland Basin to get to the A38. This was the only river crossing and it was still being swung to let boats through at that time. That was why the new Plimsoll Bridge was so big, but nobody seems to have foreseen the impact of the M5 in removing all this traffic.
This video is a brilliant piece of storytelling, humor and education. I´m from the continent, and Bristol is a special interest of me. Thanks for giving me those insights.
Loving your work sir. As a resident during the 90s and working on regeneration projects in the inner city and central areas, I can confirm that the rivalry between Avon and City Council permeated all the way through to junior officers on either side. Much to the detriment of residents.
The opportunities for a light railway / tram system were focussed on reducing commuter traffic from bordering council areas into central Bristol rather than improving neighbourhood connectivity and inevitably met local council opposition with little interest from developers in pushing an alternative like the DLR or Tyne Metro.
Do cambridge pls! I'd love this level of nuance for another city that has so much promise, and is now being touted for some of the biggest development over the next couple of decades
ha...guess where I grew up
Great video! After 4 years down here it’s always infuriated me that the strip of land that the industrial railway sits on was being underused/the pedestrian path being closed. It’s a shame that the path was allowed into fall into disrepair, it would have been a great commuter route for pedestrians/cyclists, linking Spike all the way down to the Ashton Bridge by the archive building (which could allow for easy access to the university campus via the wide lane that stretches behind the allotments)
well come -on, that's far too sensible.
That metro train artist impression is soooo eighties ... Austin Maestro front, bus doors...even the roof on the train/tram stop is 80s style urban design.
Very good content, Looks like we have a Bristolian Jay Foreman on the way
A pre-emptive like from me and saved to watch later; Thanks 👍🏿
Bristol is a complete nightmare to get in and out of and around, esp by car. I used to live in Kingswood and it would take me over an hour in the morning to travel into the centre or more than that if I was working in Clifton.
Public transport is a joke and the main reason I drove into the center was that it was cheaper than the bus. Parking was cheap meaning I could park in the Galleries for £5.
If you remember when the Metro bus system was finally finished the company that was going to run it had gone bust so it was left to First to run.
Great video, very interesting to learn more about Bristol and the history behind how it's changed. Please keep the videos coming!
Your presenting style is great, informative but mixed with a dry sense of humour. Really enjoyed the video, have subscribed :)
The problem with Bristol, is that on spring tides, the city comes within inches of flooding.
When the city was a working port, it was important to be in the basin before the stoppers went on.
These are lock gates situated under the junction bridge.
Once the tide was at its full height, the cumberland basin lock gates were opened and the traffic spilled out in to the Avon.
You are producing a superb set of videos highlighting the failings of our town planners. Please keep it up👍
From my own perspective I would prefer them to be about 15 minutes long even if a subject is then covered in several parts. It makes viewing easier and comments can be more pertinent to the section rather than diving in or waiting until the end and forgetting what you wanted to say.
IMO the most positive thing that came out of Bristol’s failed light rail scheme(s) was it didn’t result in a Canary Wharf / London Docklands style development. Mock Tudor while pretty naff is a better result.
Unfortunately we have ended up with an expensive ring road through green fields that encourages even more car use while they are then discouraged from entering the City through ULEZ.
Over the last twenty years or so on my travels I have seen many new tramway and cycleway schemes constructed in the cities in Europe with the City and Metropolitan Councils having the foresight, imagination and nouse to attract EU funds for integrated transport schemes and urban redevelopment.
Regrettably, not Bristol. Too much idealism and infighting.
I should have added that i greatly enjoy your videos, and hope that you will continue to produce them
Really enjoy your narration
This is genuinely brilliant
If you do end up making a video on the Harbour Railway, you might like to consider getting in contact with the M Shed or even the working exhibits' operations manager directly - there are a load of volunteers and staff who would love to talk about it, and you might be able to come and look around the workshop here.
Very interesting! This should have a lot more views!
I left Bristol for the Midlands over 20 years ago, so my opinion on what should or shouldn't happen there has no validity, but I do have family in the area, and do visit occasionally. I remember the 1966 Development Plan, and took it out from the library on several occasions in my pre-teen and early teen years. I remember thinking, at the time, that it must be a good idea, as traffic congestion in the city was atrocious. Anyway, as you point out, only bits of it came to fruition - the link road from the M32 down across Stapleton Road to Lawrence Hill being part of that and, I noticed recently, that was extended in a similar fashion to the original plan down to the A4 Bath Road. The Totterdown interchange never happened, but it didn't stop the Council demolishing huge swathes of housing, some of it on precariously steep roads, in order to make room for it. I believe a lot of that housing has been replaced, but I doubt you could rebuild the community that was lost so unnecessarily.
As a car user, I would obviously be likely to have a different view to you, but I think you partially miss the original reason for the development of the Cumberland Basin Flyover scheme. Traffic flows were different back then, and ALL the main roads into Bristol were pretty much easily capable of handling relatively similar volumes of traffic. However, the A370 entering Bristol via Hotwells, and along Hotwells Road and on past the Cathedral and College Green, to join Park Street and flow out onto the City Centre, was the major entry for traffic from Weston-Super-Mare, Clevedon, Yatton, Nails and Long Ashton. The existing bridge crossings were insufficient and, remembering that when it was built in 1963-5, it was the lowest crossing point bar the Clifton Suspension Bridge over the Avon. The M5 Avonmouth Bridge was not finished until 9 years later in 1974. That bypass to the low-level swing bridge was a dire necessity in the early years, and I remember it well. All those roads underneath were busy when the main span was swung. You also need to take into account that there were several road junctions catered for, apart from the main route of the A370 from the SW, and the A4 Portway and Hotwells Road to the North. There was also the A3029 (A38 link) coming in from Ashton Gate, the A369 from Rownham Hill with the Portishead traffic, the Coronation Road traffic from the South side of the New Cut and the access to and egress from Spike Island.
Of course now, with the anti-car policies of the local council, the traffic volumes differ wildly from what they were back then. It doesn't help that, if you want to enter or exit the city at more than 20 mph, your only option appears to be the M32. These days, I only ever come to Bristol to see family. I wouldn't, for instance, waste my time going there to see the S.S. Great Britain. And my opinion of the docks is that they are a mess. There is enormous history there, but you can't see it being celebrated much. There's far too much emphasis on the fast buck of food outlets and nightclub entertainment, or expensive waterside residential development. Compare it to the canal-side development in Birmingham, or Manchester, or the Harbourside in Liverpool. They have far more coherent strategies for their development. And, what is more, I can travel to both those places by train and be in the heart of the city, unlike Bristol, where you have to get a taxi or, god forbid, get on a bus to get to the centre. Saying that, where is the Centre? It used to be St.Augustine's Parade, with Broadmead being the shopping centre. Now I wonder.
Just as an aside, the large warehouses seen in a lot of your shots of the Cumberland Basin area were originally bonded tobacco warehouses belonging to W.D & H.O. Wills, the cigarette and cigar makers, and there are bits of their buildings still preserved in Bedminster, where the majority of the work took place. Bristolians back in the 80's well remember the low areas at Cumberland Basin flooding on one occasion, because the warehouses were also flooded and tons of packs of cigarettes were dumped due to contamination. Of course, there were plenty of people prepared to steal the contaminated cigarettes and sell the ones that weren't actually water damaged out of their garage or the boot of their car.
You mention the Underfall Yard, and that you may dedicate a video to it. If you haven't already done so, I would be very interested to see that, as my knowledge is rather brief in that area. I do know that it was named after the adjacent Underfall Dam, which is, I understand, the main method for controlling the level of the water in the Floating Harbour (or it was). Underfall may refer to the use of sluices at the base of the dam to release water, rather than relying on it overfalling as with a weir, or a traditional dam spillway.
I'm actually working on a video about the Totterdown demolition at the moment. Perhaps about halfway through filming. There's a book "Totterdown Rising" which covers it very thoroughly. I've also already done a video on the 'where IS the centre anyway' question - although it was not one of my better efforts IMO.
You do make an extremely good point about the Cumberland Basin road system predating the M5 Avonmouth Bridge, must admit I hadn't considered that.
I can't really agree or disagree too strongly with your thought that Birmingham, Manchester and Liverpool have done regeneration better than Bristol, since I've been to those places either very briefly or not at all, but it's pretty easy for me to believe! Bristol (council) is consistently frustrating. They seem to want to place Bristol in with that bracket of cities and from what I can see as an outsider it really isn't. They have trams, and arenas, while we get only empty talk of transport, for starters...
Thanks for sharing all your thoughts, I always especially like to hear from people with a longer/deeper perspective on Bristol than my own relative newcomer take on things.
Another fantastic video. Thank you again for making them! This made me laugh a number of times.
Thanks for the very interesting video, I regularly visit Bristol so this was of great interest to me. Thanks
Regarding the Cumberland basin junction, it just needs to be simplified. You need a link between south bristol, the A370 and the A4 and there really isn't anywhere else for the junction to go. But what they built there is INSANELY big and complicated for what's needed. They decided to link every road to every road and give everything a sliproad so that everything merges seamlessly.
The reality is the vast majority of traffic uses a couple of routes and so when the A4 is busy, the entire area just stops.
If they ended up rebuilding what's already there, but with about 1/4 of the sliproads and more traffic lights, it would probably flow better and be a smaller blot on the landscape
See my other reply, but in short, the junction as it stands really was needed back then in the sixties, before the M5 and Avonmouth Bridge could bring in the traffic from North Somerset. I can remember the queue in the morning rush reaching halfway up the hill on the Long Ashton by-pass, even with the flyover scheme in place.
@@simonuden8450 I suppose I'm looking at it from the modern day perspective, being someone who's only been driving for 15 years.
@@st0rmforce I'm not suggesting it doesn't need simplification. It's a completely different environment these days. Both the traffic flowing over it and the harbour traffic flowing under it have changed completely.
Yeh I doubt those containers are genuinely ex shipping. They seem too big. I rent one and they’re quite narrow.
I'm a bit late to this video, and the channel, but really this is excellent and fascinating work. I'd subscribe as a reward, but I did that a video or so ago!
I consider myself vaguely acquainted with Bristol since I grew up in Somerset, so some of this is just helping me flesh out a city I definitely haven't visited often enough; but there are striking familiarities with road schemes of the past/odd housing developments/what to do with old docks/magically vanished tram plans etc. where I now live, in Liverpool.
If only we could tempt you to come north and have a poke around at the 'what might have been/what we actually got' stories up in the north west!
You'd have to start with the 'how come it takes the same time to get from Bristol to Liverpool by train to go north via Birmingham or horribly out of my way by going east to London first?' 🙂
I am actually keen to do more vids from around the country but I think unlikely to be this sort of regeneration/transport/urbanism topic because I could not imagine mustering any credible analysis with little-to-no background/local's knowledge of a city (Liverpool might actually be the biggest English city I've never set foot in). More likely find some historic curiosity or noteworthy architecture or something.
@@PedestrianDiversions
Fair enough; I suppose I ought to resort to the alternatives- at least in providing similar content for other areas, namely: find the person on TH-cam who’s done it already, or, (and this really sounds hard) do it myself! Sounds a bit like effort though, all that research and whatnot! 😂
Maybe we should make the Cumberland Bason area into a nature reserve / wetland to shield the city from flooding
The best idea for a central metro-system now, is have a reasonably fast, Venice-style, passenger canal boat, linking all the old ferry jetties as stations... it would link most of the historic center, possibly even as far as Temple-meads & Bedminster... there used to be a tiny tour boat running nearly all that route in 1995, and, I believe accessible boarding stations can be accomplished for the route rather well with what exists today..
thank you steve, very cool!
I used to live in Clifton and then latterly Redland. Both of those plus Cotham, Montpellier and other adjacent areas were predominantly built with stone. Maybe the newer developments would look better if they had adopted the use of stone, but I guess that is an expensive material.
The Avon Metro fascinates me i imagine that if were built it been like the Tyne and Wear metro
Perhaps the M32 Motorway could of gone straight into the city centre and end where it would meet up with the M5 motorway heading south towards Exeter. Or to have a motorway that would avoid Bristol but going west from M5 to M4 via Bath and to have new junctions and lay-bys.
Belinda Carr made a very good video on Shipping containers as buildings. Almost all are made from brand new containers and the buildings would be much more economical built from traditional materials. Not so attractive to Architects/hipsters mind. Great video though, really enjoyed it.
Brilliant work - both informative and enjoyable! Any thoughts on how the Bristol Fruit Market could / should be redeveloped? BTW: I'm a Gashead!
I have no football loyalties in the city and I haven't looked at the fruit market -> Rovers stadium plans in any detail, but from a general 'urbanist' perspective it seems like a pretty good idea to put a stadium there to me. Most of St Philips Marsh will likely be carpeted with mid-rise flats, always good to get a sort of 'anchor tenant' of something more civic or cultural when doing regenerations like that IMO. Lots of scope for owners to add hotels etc to boost club revenues; easy walk from the station for away fans; but I don't know how home fans feel, if it's considered too far from their heartland or what have you?
@@PedestrianDiversions The Rovers definitely need a new stadium as the Memorial Stadium capacity is limited to 10,000, yet on the rare occasions when they make it to Wembley they take over 40,000 fans with them. However, the Rovers are understandably tight lipped about their plans because every time a new stadium get mentioned in public, Bristol City Council (the clue's in the name!) start lining up their objections. I think the Rovers fans would be delighted if the old fruit market becomes their new home. The only criterion is that it has to be north of the river. I wholly agree with you that the St. Philips area would benefit hugely from a new stadium incorporating hotel, conference facility, restaurants and etc. It could become a new and much needed focal point for Bristol.
Cumberland basin was built so large as it would have been the terminus for a motorway that would have followed the line of the Long Ashton bypass and then joined the M5 at junction 20 (Clevedon). See Pathetic Motorways.
Lived in bristol for 20 years and close to the "Docks" never heard it called spike island
Think of any problem, and then look at the part the motor car played in it.
My name is Matthew, the boat is named after me, also today is my Birthday.
You must be extremely old ;) Happy birthday!
@@PedestrianDiversions Thanks. Yh I am a time traveler
Visited the dock/harbour area a couple of summers back. While the area is undoubtedly a big tourist draw and a pleasant area to spend a summer afternoon, I think they've missed a trick in not building up. Sure, it's all "in keeping" with the old buildings but Bristol is a fairly large city, not some chocolate box village in deepest Somerset. Bristol should be celebrating its urbanity not striving to manufacture a fake pseudo-village. Planners can be notoriously conservative and will generally pick the safe option - the blandly inoffensive over the bold makes-you-think designs. While I'm all for a bit of living history, we can't build a country based on nostalgia and fear of change. That floating harbour and all the old buildings that have been subject to layers of legal protection from demolition were undoubtedly built on either virgin marshland or they demolished something even older. Would the harbour have even been built if the eco-heritage lobby was around back then?
One final point, Bristol Airport, ninth busiest UK airport, is the only Top 10 airport found at the end of country lane and not served by at least one motorway. Not sure what the historical reasons are for this but it really does need a decent road from the M5.
In general principle that Bristol is already a fairly big city and might as well act like it instead of 'preserving' a chocolate box village that doesn't exist, etc etc - I quite agree. Personally, I came to the conclusion that it might be a fair compromise to leave the harbour more heritage-y, and pack some tall buildings in the nondescript industrial estate bits. But they're not even doing that. They'll propose something not-even-tall, like 15 storeys, and local opposition will knock it down to like 8 storeys. And then moan that its too hard to find a flat and rents are too high. It seems to me that in trying to please everyone we end up pleasing nobody... been mulling another video about that specifically but struggling with it, so it may or may not happen
Resisting the motorway obsession will prove, in the end, the wisest choice. As individual automobiles, even electric ones, will someday prove to be energy-inefficient, more public transit will be built. Having constructed mock-tudor blocks on top of the rails rights of way, they may need to go underground. Much more costly, but perhaps the only way to avoid destroying what is left of the historic city. Pity I won't live long enough to see it happen.
Video request: The current/future/pipe dream/never gonna happen/ plans for mass rail transit in Bristol. 🤣
yeah it's an obvious topic that's definitely on my radar to potentially cover, but the "never gonna happen" aspect of it makes it a bit depressing so I've been avoiding it!
What do you think of the st Mary Le port proposals?
Unsurprisingly I've been considering a video on that. But to be honest I'm not sure if I can make up my mind. At first glance I was pretty impressed; I like the new streets, and the architecture isn't entirely generic, has clearly had some Bristol/site-specific thought behind it. The building nearest the bridge in particular looks quite distinctive although I have no idea where the supposed Bristol Byzantine influences are. To me it actually looks more like a modern take on the Dutch House than the building that's supposed to be a modern take on the Dutch House, does. The two buildings to the north are a bit bland and could be Bristol-y-er. Generally speaking I wish architects would more often design to give the appearance of a finer grain, even if the economics demands these big blocks on the inside, why not divide the facades to look more like a row of different buildings occasionally. Might sound strange but I'm also not entirely sure I like the wide pavements with trees and stuff on the High Street and Wine Street. I might've pushed up closer to the roads to create a more street-y street, and donate the space to the park / give the church more breathing room. Similarly I'm that seemingly rare breed who doesn't really think tall buildings are bad, I wouldn't have necessarily minded if one of the buildings was more like One Redcliff St height, if that meant more space donated back to the park/church. So yeah, can't really make my mind up.
Thank you for this, it's a really interesting breakdown of the issues involved. I just have 2 questions - you often criticise developments for not including shops, but those on the other side of the harbour did, but have proved very difficult to fill successfully with commercial uses. Also, with reference to the Western Harbour proposals, one of the great things about the Harbour is that you always have a view out to a green space at the end, Ashton Court or Totterdown. I've heard that that was a deliberate policy of the planning department. The development of the Western Harbour would close off most of that view.
Anyway, keep up the good work.
hi Sue and thanks for watching / commenting. I possibly used the word shops a bit much, when I really meant more like 'anything other than purely residential that might motivate not-residents to visit', so a playgroup, dentist, library, cafe, etc. that said it probably doesnt change your point much as you say yourself 'commercial uses' in general rather than shops. not sure where you mean - around millennium square? or poole's wharf? I guess my thinking might be the M-shed - SSGB - Underfall Yard axis should create stronger footfall that along Hotwell Road for example. but to be clear I'm not trying to insist I have all the answers - it may well be commercial uses were definitely not viable. no doubt it's much, much easier to snark on youtube that some houses are boring, than it is to successfully launch a new business in a new mixed-use development!
fair point also about the view to the green slopes of ashton court, that would be indeed be a visual loss if Western Harbour goes tall and dense enough to block it out. I guess what it comes down to is that I'd prefer to block the view OF that green with taller buildings on brownfield/city centre sites, than to build ON that green with low-rise suburban sprawl... I realise that's verging on a false dichotomy as nobody is actually proposing to build on ashton court but you know what I mean hopefully!
above all I think it's stupid and infuriating to take either or both approaches (spreading outwards or building dense/tall) without building proper transport. and no, buses don't count, not even if you put the word "metro" in front of them!
but I think I might retreat from covering these sorts of issues, a bit contentious and all too often depressing, I feel on safer ground harmlessly wittering about some 18th century canal or whatever ;)
@@PedestrianDiversions don't do that! You're coverage was very balanced, I thought. Our place overlooks Spike Island and the podcast made me see it in a different light.
I'd like to hear what you think of the development of McCarthur(?) Warehouse site now. To me it seems ridiculously over-stuffed.
Anyway, keep them coming!
@@sueross2850 from the outside I don't really have any problem with the scale of it. It seems to me pretty in keeping with Steamship House next to it (which I've just discovered from a quick google is only from 2010... I always assumed it was older) and Wapping Wharf and so on - and the more historical warehouse type buildings around the harbour like the Arnolfini and Bond Warehouses. From the inside I could imagine 'overstuffed' being a description I could agree with - to be honest I haven't looked at the floor plans of the flats in that specific development, but similar schemes in recent years do seem to have delivered a lot of very small shoeboxes, studios, single-aspect etc - arguably worse than the 60s tower blocks everyone hates.
Earlier this year I actually filmed tons of footage around Bedminster Green, Whitehouse Lane, Mead Street etc, which is getting stuffed with similar mid-rise schemes as we speak / imminently. And I was going to do a whole vid about what sort of housing and cityscape this wave of regeneration is building and is it good or bad etc...but I have really struggled to turn it into anything coherent... I guess that's feeding into why I say I'm not sure about doing these topics. I'm always on eggshells with anything that could be taken as deriding someone's home (e.g. council estate) or dismissing someone as a silly nimby, at the best of times, but in this case I have such mixed feelings in the first place it's even harder to be opinionated.
Like as someone stuck in 'generation rent' I am delighted with the idea of flooding the market with dense schemes with thousands of new flats, and crappy brownfield sites walking distance from the centre are the perfect place to put them. But on the other hand I look at the big student flat scheme soon to dominate the view from windmill hill, for example, and I do think it's a bit...questionable...it's not even near the uni for starters... so maybe I'm just a hypocritical nimby now...?
so I go round in circle like that for months whereas the 'harmless' ones about old churches or whatever are a lot easier to knock out!
Nobody knows who you are! Keep going...it's an interesting subject and , as you say, there's lots going on here. Why not do a different podcast for each area?
Maybe a video of what happened commercially when Avon was dissolved. I always think Bristol lost a lot of decent commercial spaces to South glos (I am a South glos resident)
Containers - only new and singly-used containers can be used so you know from the manifest what the container has...contained, so there's no risk of contamination from some of the horrible things that travel by container.
Lonf form vs shorter form - why not do both? Chop the long vid into bite-sized pieces as well, so those who want them can digest them on the train to work, whilst the longer form is for those who prefer it :)
I think youtube frowns on you uploading the same content more than once
also... why are the tracks and right of ways of the industrial railway we have remaining considered unusable, have the system be a street-running tram where tracks do not exist... yes, it will not be a fast system, but it is not actually so far to go for an urban type tram not to sufficiently handle the network.
Brilliant video but just one thing. Your pronunciation of Avon. It's not like the Avon lady it's pronounced rhyming with "haven", coming from Welsh word for river.
21:01 Class 91 but it’s a metro train
Your presentation style is very similar to Jago Hazzard
Do you want to try Southampton it’s an object lesson and hold up to do it.
But from that I’ve lived here all my life and it is awful
Thanks Mike
How things have changed !
Not much !!
As to flooding live in a boat !
nodoubtther will behistiric building turned into flats
This doesn't look much like Spike Island Widnes....🤣
Bristol really is a complete hole.