BRISTOL ROVERS

We visited Bristol last Wednesday for our annual staff field trip.

Dodging the showers, we started at the Clifton Bridge museum. Still a breathtaking structure some 160 years after completion, it was fascinating to see the original bridge competition entries of 1829 and 1831. Construction started straight after, but stopped in 1843 due to lack of funding and wasn’t completed until 1864, 5 years after Brunel’s death, so over 33 years from RIBA Stages 0 to 6! A stroll across the bridge to the Clifton Observatory offered some great views of the Avon Gorge, and we were able to share the Victorians’ wonder at the “… excellent and unusually large Camera Obscura …” at the top of the tower. Not as portable as a mobile phone, but a lot more fun!

A quick coffee shared with Wallace Brunel on the Rooftop Terrace and then we headed through Clifton to the Cathedral. We were extremely fortunate to be shown around by Peter Harrison, a retired priest who was actively involved Client-side in the design and construction of this concrete gem. Peter’s insight into the project’s history, from the initial briefing to architects Percy Thomas Partnership in 1965, construction by John Laing and consecration in 1973, brought the whole process to life. He explained every detail and its purpose, including the fabulous stained glass windows in the Narthex by Henry Haig, Simon Verity’s font and William Mitchell’s concrete Stations of the Cross. Even the portico in the early PTP sketch and model did its job on the day!

We moved from Clifton down to Wapping Wharf Food Park for lunch. What a choice of great pop-up eateries: between our whole group we tried most of them!  

Joy Stone from Alec French Architects joined us for lunch and then very kindly showed us around their very successful urban regeneration projects in Whapping Wharf and the site of the old New Gaol. One of the most interesting schemes was the recent Cargo Work office building: the client was so pleased with the shipping container Food Park that they wanted an office building to match. Unfortunately containers don’t lend themselves to flexible office layouts, so the building is actually a standard steel structure with container lookalike cladding. Nothing is ever quite as it seems!

After some free time exploring the city, M Shed and Arnolfini Gallery, we headed up to the Bristol Beacon to meet up with their Joe Allotey and David Yorke from Alec French Architects. We had a fascinating tour of all the new facilities – concert hall, theatres, music venues, basements, cellars, courtyards, restaurants and foyers. A fantastic new facility; the highlight was performances on the newly refurbished Grade II listed organ – all 5,372 pipes of it – by resident organist Jed and our very own Rhiannon North!

After a leisurely stroll back to the Waterfront, we finished off the day with a meal at The Stable before the homeward trek.

Many thanks to all who made our day such a great success, and in particular Joy, Joe, David, Jed and our Mike Lord and Amy Speed.