Category / Bristol / Suburban / Urban

A collection of blog posts and images about urban architecture.

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Best of Bristol 2019
Bristol: these are some of my personal favourite images from 2019. They mainly feature some of the more mundane and less photographed parts of the city, but that’s the way I like it! In March I was able to get access to the demolition site of the old Sorting Office to capture the last days…
19th January 2020
Bristol, Suburban, Urban
Visit Bristol Takeover
Recently Visit Bristol got in touch to offer me a weekend takeover of their Instagram feed. I was delighted, but also a little surprised – my pictures aren’t generally perceived as being ‘tourist friendly’ and I’m aware that not everyone shares my love of brutalist architecture and mundane suburban scenes. But Visit Bristol were looking…
23rd April 2019
Bristol, Suburban, Urban
Demolition of the Bristol Sorting Office
At the end of March I was fortunate to get a quick tour of the demolition work being carried out by Kier of Bristol’s former sorting office at Temple Meads. The structure, which has been derelict since 1997, is being demolished to make way for the new Bristol University Temple Quarter Enterprise Campus. The building…
12th April 2019
Bristol, Brutalist, Urban
Metrobus Guideway
The Bristol MetroBus is an express bus network that operates as a ‘guided busway’ along parts of its route. These images are taken on the section between Ashton Avenue Bridge and Ashton Vale in the South-West of the City This series of pictures were taken on a two hour walk in late December 2018. I…
28th December 2018
Bristol, Urban
Avonmouth. BS11. By Richard Ford
Despite being a Bristol boy my entire life I’ve never had any real reason to visit the Avonmouth area, even though I live only a stones throw away, so I finally made the effort and visited in March this year. Avonmouth is a port and outer suburb of Bristol. It is located at the mouth…
29th April 2017
Bristol, Urban
Southgate to East Finchley (without Octopus)
More North Circular Road related wanderings – from back in November 2014 (see the full mapped route here). This time taking in the deco suburbia of Southgate, bizarre graffiti at New Southgate, hidden (retail) parkland and the vast gothic St Pancras and Islington cemetery. The walk finished up at East Finchley with it’s lovely Edwardian / Victorian…
29th March 2017
London, Urban
Avonbridge Trading Estate
I’ve had occasion to visit the Avonbridge Trading Estate twice this week, both times under some pretty dense white skies. The second time I made sure to have a camera with me and take a wander around. This place is pretty bleak, in only the way that a field full of giant sheds, electricity pylons…
18th March 2017
Bristol, Urban
Art Deco: Arnos Grove to Southgate
Day nine of London’s Inner Circle , a photo-walk roughly following the North and South Circular roads in an anti-clockwise direction from Greenwich, follows part of the Piccadilly line extension. The walk starts at Arnos Grove tube and ends at Southgate. Both stations are wonderful examples of Charles Holden‘s art-deco architecture, and in fact this…
15th March 2017
London, Urban
Grimey Colour: Festival Way, Montpelier and Gloucester Road
This post combines a few locations that work together. There’s a general theme of grimey Bristol colour seen in the grey light of the first months of this year… BRISTOL’S WHITE CITY On a late afternoon in January around the Cumberland Basin I found myself on Festival Way, the site of an unofficial skate park, White City…
3rd March 2017
Bristol, Urban
Bristol Temple Meads and Temple Gate
Temple Gate – the area around Bristol Temple Meads station – is changing. It is being redeveloped as part of the Bristol Temple Quarter Enterprise Zone project. I’m relatively new to this city but it seems like this regeneration is both welcome and long overdue. There are currently a lot of empty and derelict buildings…
19th February 2017
Bristol, Brutalist, Urban
Wood Green to Arnos Grove
London’s Inner Circle – a series of walks that I began in 2014 but have yet to finish (see previous post) continues here. This section I walked in July 2014 was from Wood Green to Arnos Grove in North London. Featuring the 1970s architecture of the Shopping City (or The Mall Wood Green to use it’s current name),…
12th February 2017
London, Urban
Edmonton to Wood Green
Continuing my London’s Inner Circle series – in January 2014 I set out on a series of walks around London following roughly the route of the North and South Circular roads. My aim is to explore and capture the inner London suburbs that border this (disjointed) ring road. Think of it as an concrete version…
9th February 2017
London, Urban
Construction of the MetroBus Bridge
Construction work on the MetroBus bridge on Winterstoke Road seems to be progressing at a pace. Since I last photographed the bridge in the middle of January I have been past a couple more timexs and the bridge has now extended over the Portbury freight railway line towards Colliter’s Brook. Further into the centre is the…
6th February 2017
Bristol, Urban
Corners of Bristol
Some corners of Bristol from my wanderings around the city and suburbs. Everyday scenes of ordinary English streets, diners, cafés, takeaways, drive-thrus, pebbledash and streetart in Ashton, Bedminster, Fishponds, Speedwell, St George, St Phillips, Clifton and Temple Back.
4th February 2017
Bristol, Urban
Milton Keynes New Town – views from 1987 and 2012
Milton Keynes in Buckinghamshire was designated a New Town on 23 January 1967 – 50 years ago today. I’ve visited twice, once in 1987 and again in 2012. I think it’s a great town (surely it should have city status by now) and although some neighbourhoods were looking a little weathered in 2012 there was also…
23rd January 2017
New Towns, Urban
Feeder Road
Sunday morning, first light on the Feeder Road in East Bristol. This building has been empty since 1997 when the Post Office moved to Filton, it is now part of the Temple Quarter Enterprise Zone and due to be demolished and replaced by the Temple Quarter Campus for Bristol University. The new facility is scheduled…
22nd January 2017
Bristol, Urban
A year in Bristol
Twelve months ago today we moved into our new house in Bristol. Despite being a confirmed Londoner for the previous 27 years, Bristol has very quickly felt like home. It’s a great city and a wonderful place to live. To celebrate the anniversary here are 12 of my personal favourite shots of from the past year.…
10th September 2016
Bristol, Urban
Bristol: Fog & Motion
I awoke early the other morning and saw the fog, this was a perfect opportunity to get out and experiment with some ideas that I’d been mulling over – daytime motion shots. So, I headed down to Hotwells with my ND filters.
22nd April 2016
Bristol, Urban
Cumberland Piazza, Bristol
In 1965 the Cumberland Basin road scheme opened in Hotwells, Bristol. The scheme consisted of an elevated dual carriageway system above the entrance locks of the Cumberland Basin that also incorporated a swing bridge for shipping access. The complex arrangement of roads and ramps enabled traffic to be routed to whichever bridge was not being…
31st January 2016
Bristol, Urban
Brutal Utopias – The UEA
(from a visit on 3 October 2015) I was delighted when I heard that The National Trust was organising a series of tours to celebrate post-war brutalist architecture. I love concrete buildings – not always the most popular viewpoint I know – but I believe that buildings such as these deserve to be treasured and…
24th January 2016
Brutalist, Urban
Walthamstow and the Lea Valley
(from a walk on 3 May 2014) At nine miles, this was one of the longer walks of the circle that I’d completed to date – I began at Wood Street and walked via Walthamstow and the Lea Valley to Lower Edmonton and Edmonton Green Shopping Centre. I enjoyed coming back to Wood Street –…
2nd April 2015
London, Urban
South Woodford and Wood Street
(from a walk on 13 April 2014) I began this section of the walk by taking the Central Line to Snaresbrook, and my initial thought was to have a look at Snaresbrook Crown Court – which is really the first (and only?) thing that comes to mind at the mention of Snaresbrook. Unfortunately, and perhaps obviously, you…
8th March 2015
London, Urban
Peterlee
(from a visit on 16 February 2014) Peterlee is a New Town in County Durham in the North East of England. The town is named after Peter Lee the miner’s leader and county councillor. Built in the 1950s under the New Towns Act of 1946 the town originally housed coal miners and their families. George…
31st January 2015
New Towns, Urban
Charlie Brown’s
(from walks on 9 February & 29 March 2014) We start at the end of my walk on 9th February and dusk over Ilford. I was heading towards the Pioneer Point Towers – a pair of tall (33 and 25 floors respectively) but skinny modern tower blocks in the centre of Ilford. These had been…
21st December 2014
London, Urban
Brutalism Français
On a recent ten day trip to France we (@clogette and I) managed to take in more examples of brutalist and quirky architecture than I could reasonably have expected from a normal holiday. From subterranean car park art installations to giant concrete cheese wheels in an autoroute service area this was a trip that just…
21st October 2014
Brutalist, Travel, Urban
Little Ilford
(from a walk on 9 February 2014) We start with the dildo sale at the Bellend Security Company – definitely a contender for the Crap Graffiti blog, but it made me smile nonetheless. This is on the Hertford Road industrial estate in Barking. Walking up onto the footbridge, I get a sun-kissed view past the…
22nd September 2014
London, Urban
Two Nissan Micras
(from a walk on 9 February 2014) As the storm moves away I head over the footbridge, past the burnt out remains of a car resting against the fencing. There does not appear to be any obvious route to get a car into this location, but someone has managed it and handsomely topped off that…
1st September 2014
London, Urban
A13 (Trunk Road to the Sea)
(from a walk on 9 February 2014) The A13 meets the North Circular Road at Beckton – this is not a pedestrain-friendly area. I began my walk at the Beckon Triangle retail park which was still recovering from the December storms with plenty of scaffolding in evidence around the shop front canopies that had come…
9th February 2014
London, Urban
Gallions Reach Shopping Park
(from walks on 11 & 26 January 2014) Gallions Reach Shopping Park opened in winter 2003 on what was the site of Europe’s largest gas works at Beckton. Gallions Reach is also one of the sites for a proposed new East London river crossing. The Gallions Reach Bridge is one of four options that include improvements to…
26th January 2014
London, Urban
Modern Silvertown
(from a walk on 11 January 2014) With the Piers Estate and Brick Lane Music Hall behind me, I move into modern Silvertown. Travelodges shaped like giant toasters, huge bronze sculptures, the Thames Barrier and London City Airport.
11th January 2014
London, Urban
The start of London’s Inner Circle
(from a walk on 11 January 2014) I’m going to start at the Woolwich Ferry, and although I’ve made this crossing both in a car and on a motorbike, I’ve never crossed as a foot passenger. Once on board I’m pleasantly surprised – the Ernest Bevin is spotlessly clean, freshly painted and has gleaming wooden…
11th January 2014
London, Urban