Birdcherry at Birdcage Walk, Clifton 25 April A literary pilgrimage, after listening to Helen Dunmore’s novel Birdcage Walk. At Bristol Harbourside the Matthew was under sail and as we climbed up toward Clifton Hill we paused to look down on the SS Great Britain, and over toward Ashton Court. Vistas over the city and the surrounding countryside. I had thought Birdcage Walk would look out over the Avon Gorge, but it does not. I wonder how I lived in this city for so long and only now discover this peaceful spot.
In Helen Dunmore’s novel the French Revolution and the subsequent war with England impact on building projects in Bristol. From the opening of the novel there’s a sense of foreboding as a labourer, a quarryman, walks out of the city at daybreak, seemingly to work. It’s subterfuge, he is heading for Leigh Woods to bury the wife he has murdered. I had thought Birdcage Walk, with its graveyard, would seem sombre and neglected. We bring a different mood and we thought it delightful.
The day was bright and chilly. The terraces of Clifton share private gardens and we threaded our way between high walls and hidden gardens. Birdcage Walk was sunny and full of light, with flowering trees and birds singing. There’s a green plot where the former Parish Church of St Andrew stood until it was bombed in 1940. Panicles of white blossoms hung from bird cherry and a flowering fig grew thick over an enclosing wall. Branches of trees interwove and formed an arch over Birdcage Walk, lime I think.
The day was bright and chilly. The terraces of Clifton share private gardens and we threaded our way between high walls and hidden gardens. Birdcage Walk was sunny and full of light, with flowering trees and birds singing. There’s a green plot where the former Parish Church of St Andrew stood until it was bombed in 1940. Panicles of white blossoms hung from bird cherry and a flowering fig grew thick over an enclosing wall. Branches of trees interwove and formed an arch over Birdcage Walk, lime I think.
Bristol University pool is only minutes away and I used to swim there, so how did I miss Birdcage Walk? We returned down the hill to Underfall Yard and workshops used to mend and maintain the harbour.
As always, the terraces of Hotwells and Clifton are a magnet: colourful and of striking pattern. That approach, the Clifton Suspension Bridge and hillside terraces must be one of the most attractive urban landscapes in Britain.
As always, the terraces of Hotwells and Clifton are a magnet: colourful and of striking pattern. That approach, the Clifton Suspension Bridge and hillside terraces must be one of the most attractive urban landscapes in Britain.
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