Last weekend I took Gosia to Bristol for her birthday. I’d got to tickets to see her favourite artist Regina Spektor perform on Saturday night at the Colston Hall. We took a slow walk around the city before the show and I shot through a roll of Ilford FP4+ for the party, but I’ll post that next week as part of #PostWeek.

On Sunday, G headed for the shops and I loaded an old roll of Fujifilm Neopan Acros into the Leica and went to see the sights…

I’ve never seen anything quite like the Clifton Suspension Bridge. Not only is it a beautiful piece of engineering, I was really surprised by the steep sides of the gorge and the bridge’s height above the water (or mud) below – some 250ft.

From the bridge I walked back towards the city via the river and the docks and enjoyed the contrast of the robust, functional concrete of the Bristol Gate road junction with the colourful cottages and redevelopment that surround it.

Bristol is famous for its street art. Some will consider it graffiti while others will treasure a Banksy over a van Goch. And of course Banksy, the most famous of street artists is from Bristol, and several of his works have survived and are easy to find – more on that when I post the other roll from the weekend.

Nelson Street is the place to find the largest murals, including a Stik. They reminded me of the ubiquitous, building sized paintings in many Polish cities which you’ll have seen from my previous posts here.

Finally, just before meeting Gosia again and heading home, I was taking a picture of one of the murals when I looked down from the roof I was standing on and saw what struck me as the 21st century English equivalent of that Cartier-Bresson Picture. A bloke pushing a bike with a flat tyre past an empty shop, beyond security spikes all seemed to fit…

Gubbins:

Leica M6, 35mm Summicron, Fujifilm Neopan Acros 100 (expired), Ilford Ilfotec HC for  6:00 at 18°. Scanned on a v500 at 3200dpi.