Bristol (Day 2 - afternoon) - Cabot Tower, Brandon Hill and Street Art in the Stokes Croft area - The 16th of January 2015

We decided to walk up towards the Brandon Hill, so as to get a bird eye's view over the city and see the Cabot Tower before heading to the "culturally artistic" area of Stokes Croft.

It started getting a bit colder but the weather was nevertheless pleasant and particularly good for photographing. We walked around for a while but didn't climb up the Tower, bearing the name of the one who is said to have discovered the New Foundland  having walked down to the City Promenade where we got on a bus to take us farther afield.

An "observation" on the part of the bus driver didn't turn into an argument because I was still feeling "green" and decided to overlook it ... and it's well I didn't because no more than four stops ahead we were out in Stokes Croft, which didn't initially look like what I had expected.

 

 

Street Art has been given some credit in the last years and the reality is that among many of the wall covered paintings some do look very creative and particularly artistic. We came across quite a few of those as we walked down towards where we had come from (or slightly closer) and I am glad we decided to "venture" into this Art oriented area.

Many don't need to be commented on yet others because of the story behing them may be "valued" if it is unveiled, the case being the one to be seen underneath on the left which is said to have been painted to announce an organised protest to stop the new proposed Tesco in the area.

We came across a well known "canteen" on whose outside esplanade one could see one of the "iconic" images of Bristol, the first piece of Street Art in the area - Mild Mild West by Banksy, who is said to have painted it with the building owner - the tongue-in cheek joke at the people of the West country being more Mild Mild West than Wild Wild West, reflecting what can happen when people are antagonised.

Painted by Colombian street artist Stinkfish.

 

 

 

Painted in memory of Shivon Watson, who died recently (right).

As we left the area and walked into St. James Park we still came across some fairly interesting artistic pieces and some murals painted on one of its tunnels.

I felt it was quite an interesting afternoon, despite being totally different from what we had seen until then - the cohabitation of street Art and old architecture.