Tag: SS Great Britain

Hotwells, gas works, street art and Banksy’s in the wild

image

2 September 2015

We’d made it to the Cumberland Basin, the main entrance to Bristol Docks and a place that features high on my work life list of disaster areas. Part of me was interested to see what all the fuss was about. The swing bridge we were about to cross would lead us from Spike Island to Hotwells and, looking over the side at the boats moored in the calm water, it seemed peaceful enough. Of course the problem, as always in Bristol, revolves around the roads not the river and over the expanse of water in the basin, we could see plenty of traffic even on a quiet Wednesday afternoon. At least we were walking so traffic shouldn’t cause us too many problems. Continue reading Hotwells, gas works, street art and Banksy’s in the wild

From Temple Meads to Spike Island

image

2 September 2015

When I first heard about Banksy’s rather bizarre pop up ‘bemusement’ park, Dismaland I knew CJ would want to see it. Let’s face it I wanted to see it myself. The pictures I’d seen made me smile and I immediately got the tongue in cheek concept of an alternative theme park with miserable mouse eared staff and grotesque exhibits, another ironic Banksy comment on our society of greed and sensationalism. Research told me it would be easy enough to get to, although the journey would be long. Unfortunately, so would the queues. Some said the four hour wait was all part of Banksy’s master plan, an echo of the normal theme park experience. Even CJ agreed a three hour journey, followed by a four hour queue then another three hour journey didn’t sound like much fun, so I decided to come up with an alternative. Continue reading From Temple Meads to Spike Island