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It’s been a Colourful Year!
2015 has been a year of colour under the flyover -so much of the work HCCA has done to secure funding and permissions finally came to fruition.
In March we began testing colours for the pillars, preparing a ‘canvas’ for a mural by Dave Bain. We had been keen to explore a tonal range and and Anna had been playing with ideas for a long while. When Dave refused to begin a mural design until the pillars were done a trip to Hartcliffe B & Q was the only solution. Armed with 21 tester pots, a few brushes and a 5 year old, Anna dotted squares on pillars and left them for locals to complain- no-one did!
Ray Smith worked with the Landmark Practice to design the planters. Bristol Wood Recycling Project cut the scaffold planks and they were built and filled by committed local gardening volunteers. Bristol Zoo’s Wild Place project was hoping to provide us with native plants from their seedlings, but it hadn’t been a great winter for growing, so they raided Blaise estate nursery for the council rejects and delivered a striking variety of flora, including a very non-native banana plant. The nasturtiums are still flowering!
The pillar painting began in earnest at the last weekend of April with about 30 volunteers turning up. It took until mid August to paint them all, well as far as Anna’s arms and a 5 metre pole could reach- but at least Dave was now happy and produced some beautiful designs and created a magical ‘hidden forest’, with his team, in less than a week. And he braved the heights to reach up to the carriageways!
In July Sharing Communities, the Bristol 2015 Neighbourhood Arts project for our area, collaborated with Young Bristol for an event called Your Place to Play for young people to share ideas about what they wanted to do. 60 people came and joined in the conversations and activities which included BMX demos and tutoring from the amazing Matti Hemmings, a design workshop for a skate park from Canvas Spaces, a newly local business keen to get involved and beautiful floor painting from the DO15 team. People sharing thoughts and ideas for the future of the flyover continued at our Community Celebration Day in September with 30 more people joining us for a walk and drink at the Rose of Denmark.
In October Sharing Communities worked with the Portway Sunday Park team and a group of UWE architecture MA students, Luke Copely-Wilkins, Luke Carnaby, Matthew Smith and Tom Sale, to create The Wayfarers, a moveable bandstand which travelled from the Piazza to the sheer rock face just beyond the old funicular railway. The journey down the car-free Portway was led by the shocking pink Ambling Band and the recycled structures hosted musicians and local poet, Bob Walton. The acoustics across the Avon Gorge were wonderful!
On the wettest windiest November day the UWE team organised a Cumberland Basin Bonanza, rigging up a temporary sports pitch, adding the pre-cut bench elements to the planters and making more from our growing stash of pallets. Riverside garden centre donated more plants and we discussed yet more ideas.
On December 16th Green Trees contractors tarmac’d our skatespot, designed by local skaters and drafted by Andrew Iles, completing all the works Hotwells & Cliftonwood Community Association had designed and funded. Without the enormous amount of volunteer hours from locals and Bristol-wide creatives it wouldn’t have been possible!
So, our colourful year has finished and we have new people involved and new ideas to explore for 2016.
- Blue/Green are some of the colours for next year as we aspire to look at flood risk and climate change adaptations to the flyover
- A games area is another priority, designed with and for teenagers. Funds are being applied for and ideas are being drawn up by our talented team of young architects
- We hope for more live arts, collaborations, performances and even a Hotwells Carnival!
If you have any ideas you’d like to share or make happen in this space contact admin@hotwellscliftonwood.org.uk, like us and post on facebook, or tweet @hccabristol
Thanks to Trudy Feeney and her team at Bristol City Council Cleansing Dept & Mike Lawlor and Kurt James from BCC Neighbourhood Partnerships for all their support.
Playing the Portway 25TH OCTOBER 12-4PM
This event combines using the Piazza as an art and performance space with the closure of the Portway for a Sunday Park
For all event details join Sharing Communities on facebook and visit Portway Sunday Park
This project has evolved from Build a Bandstand into a parade of ‘The Wayfarers’
These portable stages are being designed and pre-fabricated by UWE Archtiect Students. The audience is invited to watch them being assembled on the Cumberland Piazza from midday and accompanied by The Ambling Band and some busy monkeys as part of the Portway Sunday Park.
The idea of a bandstand was all about the communal performance space offered by bandstands world-wide and we have used this inspire the students, who are creating some splendid structures made from recycled materials, which will then be re-used yet again. The plan is to create vertical gardens on the Cumberland Piazza! 
Being on the car-free Portway for previous road closures made me aware of the acoustics created by this amazing geological structure we have in our city and how ‘re-purposing’ the Portway as a performance space would be a fantastic thing to do. Luckily the Portway Sunday Park organisers agree and have organised other musicians and a carnival float too.
Cutting car emissions by extending normal Portway closures, even 5 times a year reduces pollution and making structures that have a fun, community purpose and can be turned into planters all add a little more oxygen to our city’s atmosphere.
Your Place to Play Sunday 5th July
Your Place to Play- Sunday 5th July- activities for kids young and older! Free Event
11am-5pm Young Bristol’s amazing Creative Team are coming to paint games on the floor for players young and old to enjoy. They are also planning to paint a local scene on some stairs. If you’re feeling arty, come and join in.
12-4pm A Doctor Bike from Bristol Bike Project will help you repair and improve your bike
1-4pm, Guiness world record holder, Matti Hemmings, demos everything possible on a BMX
2-4pm Design a Skate Park and Sports Pitch with Canvas Spaces, amazing creators of Skate and other parks. Join in and your contribution to the design may become a reality!
Skaters activities and skills shares throughout the day!
Help us stencil a massive ‘mind map’ of your ideas and messages!
See Sharing Communities Stories for more info about this project
Related articles: Growing Together, FABRICation, We HEART our Students
annahaydockwilson@icloud.com, Facebook Neighbourhood Arts Programme, Twitter @ahaydockwilson, #NAP2015
July under the Flyover
As you may have seen things are progressing. The pillars & planters are nearly done and we have been planning summer events.
Your Place to Play- Sunday 5th July- activities for kids young and older! Free Event
11am-5pm Young Bristol’s amazing Creative Team are coming to paint games on the floor for players young and old to enjoy. They are also planning to paint a local scene on some stairs. If you’re feeling arty, come and join in.
There will be activities and demos for skaters, BMXers and other bikers.
If you have any old or broken bikes or skateboards, or even scooters, bring them down and there will be people to help you fix them
If you have any skills and ideas you’d like to show or share, bring those too.
This is all about making use of this place
A full timetable of activities will be available from 30th June.
Hotwells Street Party-Saturday 11th July 12-9.30pm, Charles Place Free Event
Organised by the Rose of Denmark and the Merchants Arms, Hotwells finally gets a street party! Music, food, stalls and all sorts of entertainment. Details to follow…
Invent and Create Designs for Murals- Saturday 11th July 1-3pm Puppet Place, Unit 18, Albion Dockside Buildings, Hanover Place, BS1 6UT (near Spike Island Arts) Free Event
Artist, Dave Bain, is running a workshop for locals to design characters and images to decorate a selection of the pillars. Please get in touch if you’d like to come along.
Spring 2015 we are adding colour 25th & 26th April 12-6pm
For far too long the Piazza has been predominantly GREY and we’ve all had enough so we’re adding a lot of colour this spring.
Come and help paint the pillars top-to-toe on 25th-26th April 2015 between midday and 6pm. HCCA will provide refreshments, brushes and paint. Wear protective clothing and accompany your children.
Ray and his team of greening volunteers have been assembling and preparing the planters, created by Bristol Wood Recycling Project ready for floral colour.
Other news
We will be resurfacing the small covered area for kids (young and old) to use for skating, scooters and other wheels as soon as we have the final go ahead from the council- sorry it has taken so long! 
Many have asked about the Grow Wild bid we put out for votes. We didn’t get it but are looking at other funds to use to take up some tarmac, create more green space and plan for more facilities for children and teens.
We welcome any help so get in touch admin@hotwellscliftonwood.org.uk @hccabristol or tel 0117 929 1883 (answerphone only)
Spring 2015 we are adding colour
For far too long the Piazza has been predominantly GREY and we’ve all had enough so we’re adding a lot of colour this spring.
Come and help paint the pillars top-to-toe on 25th-26th April 2015 between midday and 6pm. HCCA will provide refreshments, brushes and paint. Wear protective clothing and accompany your children.
Ray and his team of greening volunteers have been assembling and preparing the planters, created by Bristol Wood Recycling Project ready for floral colour.
Other news
We will be resurfacing the small covered area for kids (young and old) to use for skating, scooters and other wheels as soon as we have the final go ahead from the council- sorry it has taken so long!
Many have asked about the Grow Wild bid we put out for votes. We didn’t get it but are looking at other funds to use to take up some tarmac, create more green space and plan for more facilities for children and teens.
We welcome any help so get in touch admin@hotwellscliftonwood.org.uk @hccabristol or tel 0117 929 1883 (answerphone only)
Share your skills with the community!
Find out about how you can get involved in all sorts of local projects from greening the Cumberland Piazza to helping implement the HCCA traffic strategy, making our streets safer. Let us know about things you’d like to do to improve our neighbourhood
Enjoy a presentation by HighWaterLine Bristol and Bristol City Council Flood Risk Team on how high tides might affect us in the future
HCCA AGM, Tuesday 18th Nov 7.45pm at Holy Trinity Church, Hotwell Rd
Bristol needs your vote to secure £120,000 Big Lottery grant to ‘Grow Wild’
Bristol needs your vote! The ‘People’s Plant Project’, is in the running to win a £120,000 grant to transform the city; bringing a flowerbed of colour to the Cumberland Piazza and providing the Bristol community with some of the UK’s rarest native plants to be displayed via ‘pop up’ gardens around the city.
Bristol is up against four other cities across the UK in the Grow Wild competition. Bristol’s project, The People’s Plant Collection is all about transforming dull, abandoned areas into vibrant, colourful wild flower spaces that communities across our wonderful city can enjoy. You can read more about our campaign at: http://www.bristolzoo.org.uk/grow-wild-bristol-needs-you.
Bristol Zoo and Bristol City Council will work with the local community to grow native plants at the Cumberland Piazza and will help with our skatespot and pillar painting.
WHAT CAN YOU DO?
We would be very grateful if you and your friends, families and colleagues could;
- Vote for Bristol – the national vote opens on 07/10/2014; we really need you to pledge your support. You can vote by calling 0808 228 7704 or online by clicking here. It’s easy to do and only takes a few seconds.
- Share this campaign with your friends, family and colleagues.
- And if you have time you can help us spread Bristol’s message through our Thunderclap Twitter campaign. It’s really easy and very quick to set up with a huge impact for the campaign.
By voting for Bristol – The Peoples Plant Collection, you will be supporting the world’s first community plant project which will rejuvenate the Bristol landscape – a legacy created for the people by the people.
Vote Bristol!
Ideas, Visions and Summer Arts Projects
Hotwells Arts has been working with HCCA, to plan more improvements to the Cumberland Piazza and we’d love to get feedback from you on our ideas. We’ve also been engaging with the High Water Line, an international arts project, to gather stories and histories from local residents about community resilience and flooding. Earthed are coming to the Ashton Meadows area [opposite the Create centre] to create temporary land art installations. Their first event is The Earthed Weekender on 14th/15th June as part of Bristol’s Big Green Week.
Artists Dave Bain and Oli Timmins are developing some fantastic ideas for involving local people in painting the pillars in different colours and this will be a chance for anyone in the community to have a go. Here are some visuals of how the painted pillars could make a difference to the space, to make it more striking and distinctive. We also have plans to create new planters on a more architectural scale, with Bristol Wood Recycling Project.
Colour mock-ups by Dave Bain, Visualisations by local residents Leon, age 12 and Anna age 45
We will run some workshops for local people to create character designs for the pillars and walls, inspired by the history and stories of the space. . So if you’d like to join a workshop, get in touch.
Examples of Oli’s work
Examples of Dave’s work
We are currently engaging with Bristol City Council who are helping us to secure permissions for our ideas and will update this blog post with news of dates or workshops and more detailed plans as soon as we know more
Let us know what you think of the ideas, and find out how to get involved in any of the projects by following this blog, emailing admin@hotwellscliftonwood.org.uk or leaving a message for HCCA on 01179291883
Making a Skatespot Happen in Hotwells!
People in Hotwells & Cliftonwood, would like to see more for our kids to do, and have voted for a skatespot under the flyover! Have a look at what our kids say and see how you can help…
Local year 7 kids made a film in a day during February half term, inspired by a project called 80 by 18 and this is the story they wrote, rehearsed, filmed and helped edit to see the film open this blog in your browser
We found the ‘man in the red trousers’ and he said ‘great idea!’ So we’re going to make it happen and this is how!
- We have consulted extensively with skaters and all of them have advised that a flat piece of smooth tarmac under cover is the way to start. Syd from Fifty Fifty says
‘Skaters are a global community, when they travel they seek out the best spots and they’d come to Hotwells. This would be great for local kids because these skaters would teach them skills.’ - It’s not all about the money. There’s a skate spot under the M32 that’s had a maximum of £1000 spent on it and it can be found on an Aussie website!
- To start with we are seeking permission from the council to tarmac a small area shown between these pillars below.
- When that area starts to attract skaters, the next step is to make some films with our local young people to profile skating here.
- From then on DIY practices could be used to create ‘jumps’ and we can hold some events.
- Once we’ve assessed how and what people are using the area we can start fund raising for new elements- could be extending the tarmac, putting a ‘cage’; around the space so it can be used for ball games too; more artwork; grind poles, jumps- aim high!
We hope to be working with local artists Dave Bain and Oli Timmins to paint the pillars surrounding the tarmac as a project with local people. They’ll also do murals on other parts of the site. If you want to get involved ‘follow’ this blog or e-mail admin@hotwellscliftonwood.org.uk specifying skatespot and/or art at the Cumberland Piazza.
This project will only work with maximum involvement from local people, so how about it?
Art Under the Flyover 