Street art, a gallery in a former toilet and Spike Island – Bristol’s cultural and artistic heritage is alive and very wellb Edgy, creative Bristol is aiming for another label in 2018: cultural powerhouse. Britain’s oldest continuously working theater, Bristol Old Vic, will unveil a 188-seat studio theater. St. George’s Bristol concert hall is adding a modern extension.
Being Brunel, a new museum celebrating the engineering great Isambard Kingdom Brunel, will debut alongside his masterpiece, the ocean liner SS Great Britain. And roomier new trains rolling out throughout 2018 from the Great Western Railway — plus an increase in service to four trains from two an hour in early 2019 — promise a more convenient jaunt from London.
• 198 North Street. Open Tues-Fri 10am-6pm, Sat 9am-6pm, Sun 11am-4pm, admission free
Upfest
Street art is by definition ephemeral. It may appear one day and be gone the next – before it can even be Instagrammed. Bristol is considered by many the street art capital of Europe. Walk down Nelson Street or Stokes Croft and you can see why, with pieces the size of five-storey buildings created with the blessing of city authorities. If you want pieces of street art on your walls at home without reaching for the spray cans, go to the Upfest gallery (which also organises an annual street art festival in Bedminster and Southville, though this year it is taking a much-needed year off).
Antlers
This nomadic art gallery has cropped up in various locations across Bristol over recent years, from a shopping centre to an old Edwardian toilet. Its only permanent place is online. Antlers’ newest physical space, opening later this month, is within the imposing brick walls of a former gas purifying station in Hotwells, overlooking a small inlet of the Floating Harbour. Its new temporary headquarters will have a private viewing room and office, a shop for Antlers artists’ work, and a large exhibition and function room.
• Purifier House, Lime Kiln Road. Open daily 10am-6pm, admission free
The Architecture Centre
Bristol’s elected mayor, George Ferguson, is an architect, who specialised in transforming old buildings into one with a new use. In a former sail workshop, the Architecture Centre aims to make the discipline more accessible, championing better buildings and better places through exhibitions and talks. Intricate scale models of several London 2012 Olympic venues were on display recently. Urban wanderings is a series of guided walks (£6/£4) run by volunteers and looking at modern housing developments around the harbour, and buildings in the historic Redcliffe area.
• Narrow Quay. Open Wed-Fri 11am-5pm, Sat and Sun midday-5pm, admission free
Centrespace
Hidden down a narrow alley that was the inspiration for a scene in the Wallace & Gromit film The Wrong Trousers, the Centrespace co-operative has been offering artists, designers and craftspeople studio space for more than 20 years in the heart of the old city. The downstairs exhibition area is its public-facing side, with recent highlights including the work of a prosthetic limb manufacturer, and memories on display written on luggage labels hung on a washing line. Every December studio members themselves take over the gallery.
• 6 Leonard Lane. Open Wed-Fri 10am-5pm, admission free
Cube
Friends and supporters of the Cube helped secure the long-term future of this cinema and arts venue last year by raising £185,000 to buy the freehold. Even Bristol-born artist Banksy helped out indirectly – after an anonymous benefactor donated a piece that was subsequently auctioned at Bonhams. This not-for-profit co-operative defies easy definition, with a small army of volunteers and an infectious DIY ethos. Costa book of the year winner Nathan Filer takes part in a monthly night of literary variety and cabaret. Don’t leave without trying the home-brewed Cube-Cola.
• 4 Princess Row for events and timings. Tickets from £5.50
Here Gallery
In the heart of Stokes Croft, an ever-changing street art canvas and the best place in Bristol for people watching, Here Gallery displays artwork by local and international artists, primarily printmaking and illustration. It also has one of the most eclectic bookshops in the city – matched only by the one at the Arnolfini gallery, stocking everything from gorgeous illustrated children’s books to niche magazines from around the world. Next door is The Arts House, a gallery, cafe, bar, cinema and live music venue.
• 108 Stokes Croft. Open Tues-Fri 10.30am-6.30pm, Sat 10.30am-5.30pm, admission free.
Edwardian Cloakroom
This former toilet has been closed since 2001 and retains many original features, including an elaborately tiled porcelain floor. Turned into a human-size bird box last year by artist Louis Masai Michel, it has also been used as a shop and a mindreader’s lair. Artists can now hire it rent-free from Bristol city council for exhibitions or events open to the public. The new project is a legacy of the former Capacity scheme, which turned Bristol’s disused spaces into affordable creative places. Not just an arts space, this is a unique chance to explore the unusual building’s architecture and history.
• Woodland Road. Open only for concerts / exhibitions, prices vary
Bristol Folk House
From pottery to life drawing, language lessons to jive dancing, you can find almost anything to make you a more interesting person at the Folk House. Regular art exhibitions and music are what make this place work so well, with an intimate venue primarily for folk gigs. It is also one of the venues for the Bristol International Jazz and Blues Festival. Eat some of the best and least-appreciated food in Bristol in the attached cafe, where a recent refurbishment incorporates old programmes as table covers.
• 40A Park Street, 0117 926 2987.
The Georgian House Museum
It’s difficult to avoid Bristol’s connection to the slave trade. The city’s largest concert venue, Colston Hall, is named after the city’s most prominent slave trader, Edward Colston – although it’s debatable whether it’s actually named after the road rather than the man. What is now the Georgian House Museum was built in 1790 as a family home for George Pinney, a wealthy plantation owner and sugar merchant, and is a remarkably well-preserved slice of time as well as being a salutary reminder of where much of Bristol’s wealth came from.
• 7 Great George Street. Museum reopens 19 April: Wed, Thur, Sat, Sun and bank holidays 10.30am-4pm, admission free
Spike Island
Spike Island, the area, is hemmed in by water, with the Floating Harbour on one side and the New Cut on the other. Spike Island, the venue, is home to a gallery, cafe and working space for artists, designers and creative businesses in fields from fine art fabrication to film production. The current exhibition is by Cevdet Erek from Istanbul. There are also regular artist talks and studio visits. For the first time last year, Spike Island took over an off-site venue in the harbourside area, which hosted a spill-over of the Bloomberg New Contemporaries exhibition.
• 133 Cumberland Road. Gallery open Tues-Sun midday-5pm during exhibitions, admission free
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