• Contact
  • About
DONATE
NEWSLETTER SIGN UP
  • Login
North East Bylines
  • Home
  • News
    • All
    • Brexit
    • Education
    • Environment
    • European News
    • Health
    • Politics
    • Science
    • UK News
    • World News
    Tyne Bridge

    Newcastle shortlisted for Eurovision 2023

    Fishing protest

    Dead crustaceans on North East coast: the next chapter

    NUFC foodbank

    Howay the lads and lasses: the new football foodbank season ‘22/23

    Darlington protestors

    Protestors greet Sunak and Truss at Tory Hustings in Darlington

    RMT Union banner

    When do strikes work? History shows the conditions need to be right

    Cartoon of Liz Truss with shopping trolley

    Tory leadership election: policy shopping is no way to treat people

    Border control at Dover

    The moral argument for open borders

    the quilt

    Join Hands for Ukraine at the Royal Albert Hall

    Juárez, Chihuahua, Mexico, 08-06-2021 A man was shot to death in the streets of Juárez, the experts work at the crime scene.

    Mexico: new research shows the historic link between opening schools and falling murder rates

    Trending Tags

    • Ukraine
  • Culture
    • All
    • Animation
    • Books
    • Illustrations & More
    • Music
    • Performance
    • Poetry
    • Social Media
    • Theatre
    • TV & Radio
    Tyne Bridge

    Newcastle shortlisted for Eurovision 2023

    NUFC foodbank

    Howay the lads and lasses: the new football foodbank season ‘22/23

    Summer, Lower East Side. Weegee Ⓒ ICP (International Center of Photography)

    Classic Street Style: Weegee, Doisneau, Forsyth: three cities, three photographers, three decades

    Promo image

    Cutthroat Island: preparing to terrify landlubbers!

  • Lifestyle
    • All
    • Fashion
    • Food & Drink
    • Health & Fitness
    Master Chef of Great Britain

    Master Chef of Great Britain at Lumley

    Prezzo

    Discovering the new summer menu at Prezzo

    Chef and son

    MasterChef’s’ Posh Street Food chef’s own summer of entertainment

    Scottish highlands

    The beauty of the Scottish Highlands

    Kleo Tabuku

    Top chef to open Newcastle restaurant, Lovage

    Pop up park

    Pop up to the park in Sunderland

    The Blackbird Inn, Ponteland

    The Blackbird Inn flies high with its new summer menu

    gymnast

    Culture of fear in British gymnastics uncovered by the Whyte Review

    Kennedy and Rhind

    Kennedy and Rhind: more time to enjoy a North East favourite

    Trending Tags

    • Business
      • All
      • Economy
      • Rural
      • Technology
      • Trade
      • Voluntary Sector
      Fishing protest

      Dead crustaceans on North East coast: the next chapter

      Scottish highlands

      The beauty of the Scottish Highlands

      loo

      A room with a loo

      Newcastle quayside

      Newcastle named as one of the best cities for graduates

      Brexit economics

      New research shows the economic effect of Brexit

      Wetherspoons pub

      Wetherspoons sparkle: has it gone flat?

      Leon Fussell rehearsing

      Unsung Heroes at Queen’s Hall, Hexham

      Houchen and spade

      Vampire daylight: a week in the life of Ben Houchen, Tees Valley Mayor

      Keir Starmer

      Open letter to Sir Keir Starmer

      Trending Tags

      • Region
        • All
        • Co. Durham
        • North East
        • Northumberland
        • Teesside
        • Tyneside
        • Wearside
        Tyne Bridge

        Newcastle shortlisted for Eurovision 2023

        Wildfire at Witherwack

        “Busier than Bonfire Night” as wildfire rages for over 20 hours

        Fishing protest

        Dead crustaceans on North East coast: the next chapter

        NUFC foodbank

        Howay the lads and lasses: the new football foodbank season ‘22/23

        Summer, Lower East Side. Weegee Ⓒ ICP (International Center of Photography)

        Classic Street Style: Weegee, Doisneau, Forsyth: three cities, three photographers, three decades

        Darlington protestors

        Protestors greet Sunak and Truss at Tory Hustings in Darlington

        Promo image

        Cutthroat Island: preparing to terrify landlubbers!

        DCFO Peter Heath

        Fire chiefs urge public to behave responsibly amid hot weather warnings

        Pride flag

        Northern Pride: Newcastle proves it’s loud, proud and still fighting

        Trending Tags

        • Opinion
          Titanic coming out of Southampton

          The 110th anniversary of the Titanic’s departure

          There is an England

          There is an England

          Prime Minister Boris Johnson signs the Withdrawal Agreement with the European Union"

          The parody of disinformation: Boris Johnson on Ukraine and Brexit

          Boris Johnson’s comments on Ukraine and Brexit are an insult

          TV Agency staff jumping in the air

          The TV Agency celebrates 10th anniversary with global success

          North East of County Dublin

          North East of England and North East of County Dublin: Compare and contrast

          North Sea oil rig

          Copping out of COP: Ukraine, fossil fuels and nuclear fusion

          Placard with Boris Johnson as a clown

          Dictators, media and mobility: erosion of identity, sustenance and safety

          close up on a child's eye

          Racism and misogyny where there should have been safeguarding and security

        AUDIO
        No Result
        View All Result
        • Home
        • News
          • All
          • Brexit
          • Education
          • Environment
          • European News
          • Health
          • Politics
          • Science
          • UK News
          • World News
          Tyne Bridge

          Newcastle shortlisted for Eurovision 2023

          Fishing protest

          Dead crustaceans on North East coast: the next chapter

          NUFC foodbank

          Howay the lads and lasses: the new football foodbank season ‘22/23

          Darlington protestors

          Protestors greet Sunak and Truss at Tory Hustings in Darlington

          RMT Union banner

          When do strikes work? History shows the conditions need to be right

          Cartoon of Liz Truss with shopping trolley

          Tory leadership election: policy shopping is no way to treat people

          Border control at Dover

          The moral argument for open borders

          the quilt

          Join Hands for Ukraine at the Royal Albert Hall

          Juárez, Chihuahua, Mexico, 08-06-2021 A man was shot to death in the streets of Juárez, the experts work at the crime scene.

          Mexico: new research shows the historic link between opening schools and falling murder rates

          Trending Tags

          • Ukraine
        • Culture
          • All
          • Animation
          • Books
          • Illustrations & More
          • Music
          • Performance
          • Poetry
          • Social Media
          • Theatre
          • TV & Radio
          Tyne Bridge

          Newcastle shortlisted for Eurovision 2023

          NUFC foodbank

          Howay the lads and lasses: the new football foodbank season ‘22/23

          Summer, Lower East Side. Weegee Ⓒ ICP (International Center of Photography)

          Classic Street Style: Weegee, Doisneau, Forsyth: three cities, three photographers, three decades

          Promo image

          Cutthroat Island: preparing to terrify landlubbers!

        • Lifestyle
          • All
          • Fashion
          • Food & Drink
          • Health & Fitness
          Master Chef of Great Britain

          Master Chef of Great Britain at Lumley

          Prezzo

          Discovering the new summer menu at Prezzo

          Chef and son

          MasterChef’s’ Posh Street Food chef’s own summer of entertainment

          Scottish highlands

          The beauty of the Scottish Highlands

          Kleo Tabuku

          Top chef to open Newcastle restaurant, Lovage

          Pop up park

          Pop up to the park in Sunderland

          The Blackbird Inn, Ponteland

          The Blackbird Inn flies high with its new summer menu

          gymnast

          Culture of fear in British gymnastics uncovered by the Whyte Review

          Kennedy and Rhind

          Kennedy and Rhind: more time to enjoy a North East favourite

          Trending Tags

          • Business
            • All
            • Economy
            • Rural
            • Technology
            • Trade
            • Voluntary Sector
            Fishing protest

            Dead crustaceans on North East coast: the next chapter

            Scottish highlands

            The beauty of the Scottish Highlands

            loo

            A room with a loo

            Newcastle quayside

            Newcastle named as one of the best cities for graduates

            Brexit economics

            New research shows the economic effect of Brexit

            Wetherspoons pub

            Wetherspoons sparkle: has it gone flat?

            Leon Fussell rehearsing

            Unsung Heroes at Queen’s Hall, Hexham

            Houchen and spade

            Vampire daylight: a week in the life of Ben Houchen, Tees Valley Mayor

            Keir Starmer

            Open letter to Sir Keir Starmer

            Trending Tags

            • Region
              • All
              • Co. Durham
              • North East
              • Northumberland
              • Teesside
              • Tyneside
              • Wearside
              Tyne Bridge

              Newcastle shortlisted for Eurovision 2023

              Wildfire at Witherwack

              “Busier than Bonfire Night” as wildfire rages for over 20 hours

              Fishing protest

              Dead crustaceans on North East coast: the next chapter

              NUFC foodbank

              Howay the lads and lasses: the new football foodbank season ‘22/23

              Summer, Lower East Side. Weegee Ⓒ ICP (International Center of Photography)

              Classic Street Style: Weegee, Doisneau, Forsyth: three cities, three photographers, three decades

              Darlington protestors

              Protestors greet Sunak and Truss at Tory Hustings in Darlington

              Promo image

              Cutthroat Island: preparing to terrify landlubbers!

              DCFO Peter Heath

              Fire chiefs urge public to behave responsibly amid hot weather warnings

              Pride flag

              Northern Pride: Newcastle proves it’s loud, proud and still fighting

              Trending Tags

              • Opinion
                Titanic coming out of Southampton

                The 110th anniversary of the Titanic’s departure

                There is an England

                There is an England

                Prime Minister Boris Johnson signs the Withdrawal Agreement with the European Union"

                The parody of disinformation: Boris Johnson on Ukraine and Brexit

                Boris Johnson’s comments on Ukraine and Brexit are an insult

                TV Agency staff jumping in the air

                The TV Agency celebrates 10th anniversary with global success

                North East of County Dublin

                North East of England and North East of County Dublin: Compare and contrast

                North Sea oil rig

                Copping out of COP: Ukraine, fossil fuels and nuclear fusion

                Placard with Boris Johnson as a clown

                Dictators, media and mobility: erosion of identity, sustenance and safety

                close up on a child's eye

                Racism and misogyny where there should have been safeguarding and security

              No Result
              View All Result
              North East Bylines
              No Result
              View All Result
              Home Audio

              Bridges, Brunel, Banksy and beauty in Bristol and Bath

              “After we took back control from them bloody Romans and their incredible engineering and architecture, we had the Dark Ages. But it was worth it.”

              Robin TudgebyRobin Tudge
              17-10-2021 12:56
              in Audio, UK
              Brunel in his own museum 
Photo by Robin Tudge

              Brunel in his own museum Photo by Robin Tudge

              Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
              ADVERTISEMENT

              Part 1

              We wanted to stop off at the Cheddar Gorge, but Covid had somehow closed this down. Still, in Bristol, the SS Great Britain and Brunel Museum  on Spike Island is well worth the £18 entry for the ship, all three decks restored as per a 19th century voyage of emigrants, even the driving rods of its giant steam engine still turning over, and the museum to Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s life, works and trials could brook a second visit (as the ticket enables). From there you can walk up through wonderful Georgian crescents to the Clifton Suspension Bridge with its great view over the Avon Gorge.

              Clifton suspension bridge
              Photo by Robin Tudge

              Banksy

              A walking tour of Banksy’s works proved some to be as elusive as the artist, but took in parts of the city you’d otherwise not see and multiple far larger murals besides, notably in the bohemian quarter of Montpellier with its mix of independent shops, bars and restaurants, including a fabulous Indian Thali restaurant with old film posters.

              The highlight though was a three-hour walking tour with Blue Badge tour guide, Robert Collin, who is incredibly learned and passionate about Bristol’s history and its place in the world, and makes a particular note in his talk of the slave trade and Edward Colston’s role in it – though Collin was at pains to refute that Bristol was built solely by the slave trade, and by that, Colston himself. It’d been a key port and shipbuilding centre for centuries before Colston’s 18th century fortune was evilly amassed, notably bringing in wine from Bordeaux, but then later sugar and tobacco fed the addictions provided for the British people by millions of slaves.

              Edward Colston

              Colston was relatively unknown beyond Bristol until his statue got drowned, but for Bristolians he’s long been divisive, with those seeking to discuss his wealth and facing angry, emotively charged responses from those brought up to see him as a philanthropic hero of Bristol – a legacy bigged up by the Victorians and his descendants, who simultaneously whitewashed his wealth and festooned his name all over; Colston Avenue, Colston Street, Colston Tower (but since renamed the Beacon Tower, like Colston Hall was quietly renamed the Bristol Beacon in 2017), Colston’s School (despite students seeking to rename it in 2020, with its heraldic shield still bearing the dolphins signifying the quasi-Masonic Colston Group – as does the university coat of arms! (Indeed, its grandest edifice is the Wills Memorial Building, named after the great Wills tobacco family.) Even the cathedral (free to get in) has tributes and one tower named after the Big C. And the debate rumbles on.

              Doing any justice to Collin’s tour here is impossible, and as he expounds, there’s so much more to Bristol then, and now, a vibrant, diverse, dynamic city, with cafes, restaurants and bars thronged down College Green to Whapping Wharf and Spike Island, bustling by day, serene by sunset, and raucous by night.

              Restaurants and staff

              Funnily enough, vis-à-vis issues of labour, the first pizza place we went to had run out of dough two hours before closing. Then a Transylvanian place, with lovely food and staff, was rammed. Another restaurant turned us away, directing us down to the wharf, where Prezzo was ‘booked out’ , with empty tables, for want of staff, and Stable stopped serving food two hours early because the chef had gone home. Every other bar and restaurant in Bristol (and later, Bath) had signs up advertising for staff. Though while we’d encountered no Europeans in Cornwall, in Bristol we met several.

              Baths of Bath plus cathedral
              Photo By Robin Tudge

              Bath

              None in Bath, though. A stunning city, beautiful 18th and 19th century neo-classical sandstone buildings and terraces glowing in the sunshine. Certainly, spend the £25 to spend hours touring the surprisingly extensive Roman baths and temple complex, but that’s it really. Bath’s orderliness, its cleanliness, is like being in the house of an old, overly strict relative. As Collin told us, though Bristol can brook debate about its past, for Bath, not a word, not an iota of coming to terms with the slavery of its own civic hero, William Pulteney, an 18th century MP to boot, after whom is named the baroque Pulteney bridge, the tour boat moored beneath it, the grand boulevard of Great Pulteney street, even a café and a dental practice bear his name. Not even a gouged off sticker to be seen, possibly subliminally preventing me from stickering as I’d done Bristol – let alone a Banksy. The only graffiti we saw was on a bridge crossing the A road on our way out, where some folk dangled 30 feet above a dual carriageway to spray ‘the lie virus’ in massive letters, and Rees-Mogg’s supporters thought fit to leave it. No regrets in Brexit country.

              “After we took back control from them bloody Romans and their incredible engineering and architecture, we had the Dark Ages. But it was worth it.”

              Tags: Culture
              ADVERTISEMENT
              Previous Post

              David Amess MP, a tragic loss on so many levels

              Next Post

              UK doing worse than European neighbours says APPG on Coronavirus

              Robin Tudge

              Robin Tudge

              Related Posts

              night sky
              Audio

              Earth calling Andromeda

              byJan Clarke
              June 30, 2022
              Visitors in the former Holy Trinity Church, Sunderland
              Audio

              Seventeen Nineteen: Hidden Stories in Sunderland church

              byNorth East Bylines
              June 23, 2022
              Campaigning for Samuel in Loftus Market Place, 1906 - "More Boots - less Beer."
              Audio

              Opposition to the first immigration bill

              byDavid Walsh
              June 20, 2022
              dead fish
              Audio

              Defra on the defensive over toxic dumping in Tees Bay

              byScott Hunter
              June 18, 2022
              Cornwall
              Audio

              I want my country back

              byNicola Tipton
              May 31, 2022
              Next Post
              Photo by EVG Culture from Pexels

              UK doing worse than European neighbours says APPG on Coronavirus

              Want to support us?

              Can you help North East Bylines to grow and become more sustainable with a regular donation, no matter how small?  

              DONATE

              Sign up to our newsletter

              If you would like to receive the North East Bylines regular newsletter, straight talking direct to your inbox, click the button below.

              NEWSLETTER

              LATEST

              Tyne Bridge

              Newcastle shortlisted for Eurovision 2023

              August 12, 2022
              Wildfire at Witherwack

              “Busier than Bonfire Night” as wildfire rages for over 20 hours

              August 11, 2022
              Fishing protest

              Dead crustaceans on North East coast: the next chapter

              August 11, 2022
              NUFC foodbank

              Howay the lads and lasses: the new football foodbank season ‘22/23

              August 10, 2022
              Summer, Lower East Side. Weegee Ⓒ ICP (International Center of Photography)

              Classic Street Style: Weegee, Doisneau, Forsyth: three cities, three photographers, three decades

              August 10, 2022
              Darlington protestors

              Protestors greet Sunak and Truss at Tory Hustings in Darlington

              August 10, 2022

              MOST READ

              Tyne Bridge

              Newcastle shortlisted for Eurovision 2023

              August 12, 2022
              Wildfire at Witherwack

              “Busier than Bonfire Night” as wildfire rages for over 20 hours

              August 11, 2022
              Fishing protest

              Dead crustaceans on North East coast: the next chapter

              August 11, 2022
              NUFC foodbank

              Howay the lads and lasses: the new football foodbank season ‘22/23

              August 10, 2022

              BROWSE BY TAGS

              Audio Beach Brexit Business castle leazes climate activism Co. Durham cost of living crisis Culture defra democracy ducklings Economy Education Environment fire and rescue firefighter Food & Drink food poverty Health Health & Care Home Affairs just stop oil Lifestyle Local Lockdown Northumberland Peace Performance Politics pride month refugee rescue Science Social Media Teesside TV & Radio Tynemouth Tyneside Ukraine volunteer Wearside

              We are a not-for-profit citizen journalism publication. Our aim is to publish well-written, fact-based articles and opinion pieces on subjects that are of interest to people in the North East and beyond.

              North East Bylines is a trading brand of Bylines Network Limited, which is a sister organisation to Byline Times.

              Learn more about us

              No Result
              View All Result
              • Contact
              • About
              • Letters
              • Donate
              • Privacy
              • Bylines network
              • Shop

              © 2022 North East Bylines. Citizen Journalism | Local & Internationalist

              No Result
              View All Result
              • Home
              • News
                • Brexit
                • Education
                • Environment
                • UK News
                • Transport
                • World News
              • Politics
              • Opinion
              • Lifestyle
                • Culture
                • Music
                • Poetry
              • Business
                • Economy
                • Technology
                • Trade
              • Donate
              • Newsletter sign up
              • Boriiis Cartoons
              • Authors
              • Audio

              © 2022 North East Bylines. Citizen Journalism | Local & Internationalist

              Welcome Back!

              Login to your account below

              Forgotten Password?

              Retrieve your password

              Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

              Log In