Tesco Targets North Street

Charlie Bolton, Bristol's only Green Party Councillor, is attempting to prevent the opening of a Tesco store on North Street, Ashton (or is it Southville?)

His reasons are coherent and sensible and can be read on his blog here.

They are also unlikely to succeed - unless there is a massive movement from grass roots consumers to (a) oppose the plan and (b) to refuse to use the store if it does open.

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Tamed at the Tobacco Factory

The current production of Taming of the Shrew at the Tobacco Factory is a very fine piece of theatre, in my opinion.

Both the play and the venue were new to me and I enjoyed both very much.

The production company based at the Factory was formed out of the conviction that audiences wanted "to see Shakespeare professionally performed by large casts in an intimate space." With 18 actors taking part, and thus minimum doubling up, the production was true to its company's vision, producing a big impact in a small space.

The Shrew was performed in the round, the audience of about 250 sitting on four sides of the performance space. There was no stage, only a flat area in the middle, an arrangement I had not seen before but one which worked very well, due in part to the very intimate feel of the theatre.

Leo Wringer (pictured) was sensational as Petruchio, winning a spontaneous round of applause from the audience after one particularly powerful speech.

The matinée audience had an average age of about 65, which was something of a surprise to me as I expected more families to be present. Unlike me, they seemed very knowledgeable about the goings on but like me they appeared to enjoy the whole event - a performance, I might add, which started at 2.30 and finished at 5.40. Although the seats did come with cushions, the intermission was welcome.

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Top Bristol Community Sites

Bristol has a growing number of community web sites, blogs and independent media outlets. Here are a few I've found and enjoyed.

Bristol Blogger Does exactly what it says on the label.

Southville Blog Charlie Bolton's Southville blog has a strong environmental theme, which you would expect from Bristol's first Green Party City Councillor.

Bristol Local Food Highlighted elsewhere on this blog, this site lists numerous local food outlets across the city where food sold has not been transported half way around the world before reaching your plate.

Bristol Media A site dedicated to Bristol's creative and media industries and professionals.

Digital Bristol One of the early local portals that contains numerous good links. Needs a bit of a face lift, in my humble opinion - maybe it could be turned into a wiki site.

Sustainable Redland An interesting site showing what can be done when a bunch of neighbours get together and take action to reduce their carbon footprint - sorry I made a silent vow not to use that term on Trym Tales but I've just broken it.

Bristol Indy Media The place to check for all the news on the latest demo.

Salaam Shalom It's not well known, but it's quite cool. Bristol's own online collaborative radio station run jointly by Moslems and Jews.






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The Southville Problem

As mentioned in an earlier post, I have noticed a growing tendency for Ashton to find itself called Southville, especially by newcomers to the area.

At one level, this is an understandable mistake. The three neighbourhoods of Southville, Bedminster and Ashton do have convoluting boundaries - similar to those dividing Bishopston, St Andrews and Horfield in the Gloucester Road area of North Bristol.

Confusion cannot be enough, however, to explain this phenomenon. There is a more sinister cause of this geographical confusion.

It started about three or four years ago when property prices were racing ahead and when estate agents in Clifton started to take on properties outside their normal areas to respond to the demand from buyers for city centre homes at affordable prices. One day someone in an estate agent's office somewhere on Whiteladies Road thought aloud and suggested referring to this neighbourhood as "Lower Clifton."

Apart from being an outrageous piece of marketing, this action also set in motion a trend that resulted in Southville being pushed south and west into Ashton (in the minds of first time buyers considering relocating there. )

The rest, as they say is history and now we have North Street Ashton regularly described as being in Southville, when for at least a century it has been in Ashton.

Shopping for Greener Food in Bristol - part 2

First stop, North Street Ashton. I know people want to call it Southville or Bedminster but it’s not. It’s Ashton. That’s the same place as the Bristol City Football Ground, Greville Smyth Park and Winterstoke Road. It’s Ashton. I have a theory about why there is a groundswell of opinion wanting to describe North Street as Southville, but that’s for another post. Suffice to say here that such people are misguided.

North Street (Ashton) is home to the rather fine but puzzlingly-named Southville Deli, a clean, friendly food store with aluminium tables and chairs on the pavement outside. I was pleasantly surprised at the prices of the pulses and stocked up on my soup ingredients and Herbert’s bread before heading up the road to the Ashton Fruit Shop, a fine example of a retail establishment that knows exactly what it sells and, important in this instance, where it is.

Neither lemons, satsumas or English apples were on my shopping list, but all made their way into my basket, along with a lettuce for 35 pence, the largest cucumber I have ever purchased and some nicely priced root vegetables. For £5 I reckon I bought enough veg for winter hot pot for 6. That's right, count them: 6 people live in my home – no we’re not a commune, we’re a biological family plus a Taiwanese lodger.

Next stop, and a long walk to the other end of North Street, was Masalas. Call me old fashioned, but for some reason with a name like that I was expecting a shop with at least a hint of Asian influence. What I found was a western hippy food store and cafe – complete with a pungent aroma of joss sticks, a white-haired man sitting in the window and assorted individuals lounging on sofas and chairs at the back of the shop. It wasn’t clear to me whether they were customers or staff.

The environment took me back to a restaurant my father used to take me to in Exeter when I was a lad. The Iron Bridge, between St David’s Station and the main shopping centre was a haven for Exeter’s long hair community in the 1970s and was, incidentally, the first place I ever tried nut roast.

The woman behind the counter at Masalas was a little unsure of the price or contents of the various home-made food stuffs on display. Despite or because of that, I came away with 6 pitta bread for 99 pence and a carton of vegetable curry for £2.95. Both were delicious and, when I added rice and salad at home, fed four adults.