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The changing face of Bristol


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  • RMweb Gold

Other than Queen Square being a very pleasant place to sit and eat sandwiches, not full of bus fumes like it was ...

 

Plus it's an excellent venue. Apart from every summer lunchtime and evening being full of people enjoying themselves, it's a location for music events like Arcadia, pop-up bars e.g. at Harbour Festival, comedy events, and more besides. The buses use the main road which goes around the outside next to The Grove car park, and they don't use the cobbled streets around the square. It's hardly a massive diversion and now they have their own designated lane across the harbour bridge towards Redcliffe.

It's not perfect but it's a lovely place to have in the centre of the city.

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  • RMweb Gold

looking back in time on nls maps I find it staggering that the route through Queen Square was a fifties addition - the earlier route being Baldwin Street and Redcliff Street. I can only imagine the howls of protest if this was proposed today LOL.

 

I don't think you can even turn down Baldwin Street off the A38/St Augustine's Parade now, or turn down Redcliff Street after the bridge. There's some sort of Anti A38 movement in the Bristol town planner's office!

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  • RMweb Gold

1930s addition, I believe.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/brizzlebornandbred/2056190959
 

I don't think you can even turn down Baldwin Street off the A38/St Augustine's Parade now, or turn down Redcliff Street after the bridge. There's some sort of Anti A38 movement in the Bristol town planner's office!


You can, but it's a tortuous route through Denmark Street (little more than an alley) or swinging around the hotel forecourt in College Green and approaching from the SW corner as you can only turn right into Baldwin Street from that end. I believe the idea is to send traffic heading that way around the dual carriageway that goes past Temple Meads, away from the centre.

Edited by Corbs
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looking back in time on nls maps I find it staggering that the route through Queen Square was a fifties addition - the earlier route being Baldwin Street and Redcliff Street. I can only imagine the howls of protest if this was proposed today LOL.

 

I don't think you can even turn down Baldwin Street off the A38/St Augustine's Parade now, or turn down Redcliff Street after the bridge. There's some sort of Anti A38 movement in the Bristol town planner's office!

This was part of the 1930's planned inner ring road.

 

Bristol is full of aborted road schemes.

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  • RMweb Gold

I remember it fondly! What a treat to go over the flyover as a kid!

(of course years later Mum revealed that it was on the way home anyway and was not in fact a reward for good behaviour as we had previously believed)

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  • RMweb Gold

1930s addition, I believe.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/brizzlebornandbred/2056190959

 

You can, but it's a tortuous route through Denmark Street (little more than an alley) or swinging around the hotel forecourt in College Green and approaching from the SW corner as you can only turn right into Baldwin Street from that end. I believe the idea is to send traffic heading that way around the dual carriageway that goes past Temple Meads, away from the centre.

 

Yes, that's the conclusion I'd come to. One day SWMBO and I will do the whole length of the A38 from Mansfield to Bodmin, so ideally I'd like to take in as much of the old roads as possible (yes this means the B3181/A3015/A379 at the bottom end of the M5) 

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  • RMweb Premium

Who remembers the metal flyover?

 

Certainly do. I spent a year of my life on site taking it down in 1997-8.

I could regale you with stories of what we saw going on in the Grosvenor Hotel, or the fiasco of a closure ceremony which some bright PR spark decided to do live on HTV but was sabotaged by an open top bus and a group of male strippers...

Ironically, the roundabout we built in its place is now itself being removed in favour of a cross roads and set of traffic lights. That's progress I suppose, though I'm still a little upset they cut all the London Plane trees down that we planted too!

Still, at least they are now finding all the things we left buried, har har.

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Yes, that's the conclusion I'd come to. One day SWMBO and I will do the whole length of the A38 from Mansfield to Bodmin, so ideally I'd like to take in as much of the old roads as possible (yes this means the B3181/A3015/A379 at the bottom end of the M5)

 

I think the A38 was extended to Mansfield in 1977, the same year that part of the A38 in Devon was downgraded to become the B3181, so it may be thay one could never travel all of the A38 from Mansfield to Bodmin at any one time. Of course, the A38 has been re-routed on it's way through several towns and cities in its time, and many stretches have been straightened out with the old route either still in use as a road or long layby. So, are you going to follow those too, as far as possible? (The town I live in was initially on the A38 at numbering, but the A38 was soon rerouted to go via a more suitable route within just a few years. Rerouted in Gloucester, Bristol and Exeter too). Edited by Coppercap
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  • RMweb Gold

Realistically, it may be a monorail by then LOL - it will be after the kids have left and we are once more free!

 

I think the plan will be to travel down on whatever is still classified as A38, only taking in other roads when the A38 is no longer there - ideally using as much of the old road as possible at this point.

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This was part of the 1930's planned inner ring road.

 

Bristol is full of aborted road schemes.

Plans were approved in 1936 with work completed a year later. There had been two previous proposals just before the first war and early 1920’s.

 

Paul B

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  • RMweb Gold

Is this some whole new British hobby that I've not been aware of before?

 

 

LOL, you know we like Cornwall and still harbour ideas of retiring down your way somewhere. Every time we drive down the M5 we note that A38 is mentioned on many of the junctions so the idea came to us :)

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  • RMweb Gold

LOL, you know we like Cornwall and still harbour ideas of retiring down your way somewhere. Every time we drive down the M5 we note that A38 is mentioned on many of the junctions so the idea came to us :)

Right, so you'll be taking a few weeks off work for this, then?  ;)

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Probably late to the thread but here are a few photographs sent to me by my son-in-law who is working on behalf of Network Rail as one of the Civil Engineers in charge of the works around Bristol

 

post-20303-0-37329000-1536246512_thumb.jpg

 

post-20303-0-80100700-1536246545_thumb.jpg

 

The gabions have been secured with 14m long nails, the longest ones being some 20.5m long

 

post-20303-0-08913900-1536246590_thumb.jpg

 

post-20303-0-78773100-1536246632_thumb.jpeg

 

Here he was charged with the unloading of 46 wagons of ballast on two separate trains totalling 2760 tonnes all done and laid in his twelve hour shift.

 

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Is this some whole new British hobby that I've not been aware of before?

Long ago, when I was looking for interesting things to do with my new minted motorcycle licence, I took a brisk, pre-dawn trip along the A4, from its origin in London to its end at the dock gates at Avonmouth. A great run, made better by the immense fried breakfast at the Blackbird Cafe (anyone remember it?) that I enjoyed at its conclusion.

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looking back in time on nls maps I find it staggering that the route through Queen Square was a fifties addition - the earlier route being Baldwin Street and Redcliff Street. I can only imagine the howls of protest if this was proposed today LOL.

 

I don't think you can even turn down Baldwin Street off the A38/St Augustine's Parade now, or turn down Redcliff Street after the bridge. There's some sort of Anti A38 movement in the Bristol town planner's office!

 

This is the only map I could find which gives the situation now that BCC has finished (?!) their interminable roadworks in the 'Tramway Centre'.

 

The red line through Queens Square is the original route of the A38 through the square. You now have to go down Prince Street and along The Grove (or vv) to make the same journey.

Apparently Prince Street bridge is still two-way.

You can still get into Baldwin Street from the A4 St.Augustine's Parade northbound, instead of going up to the Electricity Board House (no.10) and turning back along Broad Quay they've cut a two-way road directly into through the centre island where the Tramway stops used to be (denoted by the double arrow). From the north, You go down Broad Quay and turn left as before.

From the south, the lower part of Broad Quay (past the old Bristol & West building) is now Bus Only, so you go straight up Marsh Street and join Baldwin Street at the first junction along.

You cannot get to/from Colston Street from the Centre (+), the only access here is Bus Only from Colston Street onto the Centre.

 

post-14641-0-29021900-1536253931_thumb.jpg

Edited by talisman56
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