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Bristol has been established since the 11th century as a port, but Bedminster, just south of the river Avon and now part of Bristol, has been established even longer. However, most of the buildings that you see in Bedminster today relate to Bristol's Victorian industrial past and the working people in that community - tobacco warehouses and factories and coal mines, non-conformist churches and chapels, old-fashioned Victorian shops and pubs.

Bedminster is still a lively and friendly community, with a clear sense of its own identity separate from Bristol. The factories and coal-mines closed years ago and have now been converted into offices, an arts space and a children's playground, but the community itself still thrives.

This page describes a walk I did for the Bristol Ramblers in early August 2000.

Bedminster has been established longer than Bristol itself – it was certainly established as a Saxon settlement by the 7th century CE, and may have been a Roman settlement before that. The names "East Street", "North Street" and "West Street" suggest it may have been a military Roman base, and there was certainly a Roman Road running along what is now East Street, leading from the lead mines in the Mendips to the Roman port of Sea Mills.

By the middle ages, Bedminster was a thriving rural area – its rural past can be seen today in pub names such as the "Barley Mow", the "Spotted Cow" and the "Three Horseshoes" – centred around St. John’s Church, which sadly no longer exists. The imposing 15th century church was destroyed in 1644 during the Civil War, and a rather modest replacement was built in 1663. By the middle of the 1800s, the population of Bedminster had increased enormously and St. John’s church was rebuilt in a far more imposing style in 1855. Sadly, this church was destroyed during a Luftwaffe raid on Good Friday 1941, and the ruins were eventually demolished in 1962. At its time, St. John’s church was the major church of Bedminster, and St. Mary Redcliffe was merely a daughter church of St. John’s.

The walk starts at Bedminster library, formerly a police station and a fire station, now situated along the edge of ASDA’s car park. This junction of East Street and Philip Street was a thriving hamlet within Bedminster called Brightbow.

Dean Lane comes out to the junction of North Street and Cannon Street, by a pub now called the Florikin and Firkin (until recently called The Star). This pub has a colourful history – in the 1830s, the landlord purchased a live tiger from Bristol Docks, which he displayed in a cage in the pub. This drew the crowds for a while, but the novelty wore off. So to boost crowds further, the landlord took to getting into the cage with the tiger. This ploy worked, and would probably have made the landlord rich, were it not for the inevitable night when the tiger killed and ate the unfortunate man!

Cannon Street also housed the Town Hall of Bedminster (where Clara Butt gave her first performance), and three haberdashery shops owned by E. N. Miles (where the advertising hoardings now are). Over to the left you can see Cameron Balloons, and the Robinsons Paper Bag factory. The Cameron Balloons building was in fact the first Robinsons paper bag factory, built in the 1880s. By 1897, they had expanded and built a second big block. This is now unoccupied, but the company name can still be seen from behind the building.

Just past the Robert Fitzharding pub, turn right into British Road. This was originally called Victoria Street, but was renamed British Road in 1846. The non-conformists competed against the "National Schools", mainly founded by the Church of England, and set up their own "British Schools", a major one being on this road and giving the later name to the road. The school had many uses after its closure, but had been standing empty for several years when it was vandalised in 1997. It was demolished a year later, and little remains apart from a single wall still standing. The Lam Rim Buddhist centre can be seen in Victoria Place – this is also a complementary health centre. The Princess of Wales is an early 19th century pub, and the pub sign with the picture of Princess Diana is recent – the sign formerly showed Alexandra, the wife of Edward VII.

Ebeneezer Methodist church in British Road is a modern church, replacing the grand neo-classical church of 1837 which stood until 1980. Turn right into Hebron Road, where you can see the magnificent Hebron Chapel, until recently a Spiritualist church. This was built as a chapel by a breakaway non-conformist group. The overgrown burial ground contains the grave of the exotically named Princess Caribou. In fact, the "princess" was a poor Devonian woman named Mary Baker who pretended to be a Javanese princess and was feted by the wealthy and famous in the early 1800s. She died a pauper in 1868.

Double back along North Street in the other direction. You will see Gaywood House. This is now a doctor’s surgery and tower block, and replaced a graceful 18th century building called Dorset House. Further on is the Spotted Cow (another reference to Bedminster’s rural past) and then the Hen and Chicken pub. This traditional Bedminster pub became nationally famous in the early 1990s when it became Bristol’s first theatre pub, and hosted the very talented Show of Strength theatre company. Most performances were sold out, and people came from all over the UK to see their performances, which received glowing reviews in national broadsheets such as the Guardian and Observer. The theatre group are still performing, and are not at the Hen and Chicken but instead perform at the nearby Tobacco Factory on North Street.

At the Hen and Chicken, turn right into Greville Road, named after Sir Greville Smythe. Here you will notice houses on the right with names such as "Prospect Place". These houses, built in the 1880s, used to have superb views over Clifton until the larger three storey houses were built later. Some of the larger houses have the house numbers engraved into the stone, for example number 173. However, the house with 173 engraved into it is not 173 Greville Road – it’s 47 Greville Road. The reason for this can be seen by looking at any map – Greville Road has a "dog leg" in it. It was originally going to be an extension of Stackpool Road, and Stackpool Road now stops dead at a large brick wall. This marked the boundary of a vicarage, and the vicar refused to sell up to the developers. As a result, the brick wall stayed (and is still there), and Greville Road had to be diverted around the vicarage. The vicarage is no longer there, but Vicarage Road is. At what seems to be the end of Greville Road, turn right (in fact, you’re still in Greville Road), then follow the road round to the left, then at the top of the hill turn left again, and follow the road round to the right. You’ve negotiated the "dog leg" of Greville Road, and you are now in Stackpool Road.

Walk along Stackpool Road and turn left down Beauley Road. You can see the Southville Centre, a former school. This is now a thriving community centre and sheltered housing development.

Continue down Beauley Road, and near the bottom turn left along Raleigh Road, then take the first right (it’s quite a way) along Upton Road. The end of Raleigh Road was very industrial, and that part of the road was very hemmed in. The old tobacco factories were demolished a few years ago, but the ones in Upton Road have been renovated as offices.

When you reach the crossoroads, turn left along Greenway Bush Lane. Keep going until you almost reach North Street, then turn right into Ashton Gate Road.

Walk across the grass of the park and at the far corner you will see an underpass. Go under the underpass, follow the path round the corner and stick to the pavement – you don’t need to cross any roads at this point. Follow the path round to the right under another underpass, and follow the path to a bus stop by a roundabout.

From here, there are two possible routes to Ashton Court. The easiest is to turn right along Clanage Road, the A369, then turn left into Kennel Lodge Road. This leads past the University of the West of England and along a paved road to Ashton Court mansion. The alternative, and prettier route, is to cross the A369 into the small road directly opposite, Parklands Road. Keep going until you near the end of this road, and you will see a narrow footpath to the left leading into Ashton Gate school playing fields. At the end of this path, you will see a stile diagonally to your right – though please walk around the edge of the playing fields rather than walking right across them. Go over the two stiles and walk right across the field until you see a kissing gate leading into Ashton Court. From this direction, you get an imposing view of Ashton Court mansion, and the kissing gate leads right into the mansion garden.

Walk onto the estate road and turn right past the mansion (if you’ve taken the pretty route – otherwise simply turn back and go back down the entrance road the way you came). This estate road leads past the University of the West of England and into Kennel Lodge Road.

At the bottom of Kennel Lodge Road, turn left onto the busy Clanage Road. Cross the road and walk along the pavement until you come to a fairly concealed footpath on your right.

Follow the footpath, which crosses a disused railway line (there is a crumbling footbridge, but don’t use it!). This path leads onto the Pill cycle path and footway. When you reach the cycle path, turn right, where you will see an imposing iron bridge which leads to the CREATE environmental centre. This iron bridge used to be a double-decker bridge, with a railway line underneath and a road on top. Before the Cumberland Basin complex was built in the 1960s, this was the main road from the South West into Bristol.

Note: to return to Bedminster library, retrace your steps to the cycle path and follow it along the river until you get to the second footbridge. This footbridge will take you across the river and bring you out at St. Paul’s church right near the start of our walk