Becoming Part of the Historic Record: Bristol City Centre

This month marks twenty years since I arrived in the UK to study for a Masters degree in Archaeology for Screen Media at the University of Bristol. Running my business has kept me on my toes, so I hadn’t thought much about this anniversary until a headline on the BBC website stopped me in my tracks.

“City Centre fountains to be filled in”

The picture was instantly recognisable to me: the city centre in question was Bristol, and it was a place I had spent a lot of time as an MA student. Indeed, it was a location that played a pivotal role in shaping the next stage of my life.

During my time pootling about Bristol as a student, I became fascinated by numbered plaques on the pavement reading Bristol Heritage Trail. The numbers clearly connected to something … but what? There was no indication online and it took a fair amount of research to track down the history of the heritage trail itself as well as the historic site each plaque was associated with.

“Wouldn’t it be great if there was a way to have a text or image delivered to my phone to tell me about the place as I walked by?” I mused, thinking I had perhaps hit upon the next big thing in technology … only to discover that others were already working on this, including a team in Bristol itself.

Before I go any further, please keep in mind that this was several years before the iPhone launched, ushering in the era of the smartphone and changing life as we knew it. Location-based media—using GPS to trigger actions on a digital device like a phone or Palm Pilot—was in an embryonic state.*

I chose the centre as my testbed because it is a relatively confined space—there are only so many places one can wander—but it has undergone numerous changes over the centuries. From an open harbour with ships running along a busy quayside to a flower garden to the soon-to-be filled fountains, Bristol’s centre has always been about transformation.

To aid in my research, I took several walking tours with Blue Badge guides to learn about how they provided information. How much through weaving a narrative? How much was dry fact? Turns out it’s more of the former and less of the latter.

I spent hours in the beautiful reading room at the Bristol Central Library, immersing myself in the history of the area and travelling back in time through archive photographs and paintings. Bit by bit, I constructed a narrative around different aspects of the centre, linking text to images, and programming the media content to appear when a user walked into the space. I even got one of the tour guides I met to narrate it for me.

There was the well-travelled statue of Neptune.

The now-deposed statue of Edward Colston.

The statue of 18th-century stateman Edmund Burke, to whom the saying, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” is attributed.

And, of course, the varied history of the centre itself, from a working quayside heaving with ships … to the heart of the Bristol tram network … to a pedestrian zone where children would splash about barefoot in the fountains during hot weather.

The dissertation went well, and I discovered I had an itch to dig deeper into the topic: how could I develop a guide to best practice for others designing these types of tours? It was an itch I scratched by pursuing a PhD, which allowed me to expand my involvement in British landmarks to the Roman Baths and Clifton Suspension Bridge. As an aside, the PhD experience was bookended by meeting MrElaineous on the same day I registered for the degree … and I married him the same month I passed my viva.

So, it’s probably no surprise as to why I feel so strongly about the centre, or why my first reaction to seeing the BBC headline was a kneejerk exclamation of “Oh no!” I was sad to read about the plans because this is an area where I have so many happy memories. I wondered what role poor planning and lack of maintenance may have played in the current problems. After all, the fountains of Bristol’s city centre were a project to mark the new millennium; they barely lasted the first quarter of the 21st century.

Yet I soon realised that these changes are just a natural part of the ebb and flow of the urban environment. My own research had demonstrated that.

The United Kingdom has an impression of being unchanging, and the long reign of Queen Elizabeth II has added to this idea of a country frozen in time. Yet, in reality, the past is often viewed through rose-coloured spectacles and nothing stays the same for long.

There is of course a need to learn from the past so we do not repeat the worst parts of it, with the forthcoming American election being a case in point. And change for the sake of change is pointless. But striving for improvement, of working to make things better for ourselves, our loved ones, and our wider community is always worthwhile.

So, I wish Bristol the best with their new plans. I can’t wait to see the changes.

This was so long ago that phones didn’t have embedded GPS. Users had a Palm Pilot iPAQ hooked to a GPS unit; the whole setup did not exactly fit in your pocket. Indeed, early commercial models required would-be time travellers to borrow the kit, which is probably why this type of technology didn’t take off until the rise of the smartphone. [Back to text]

Off the Beaten Track Wiltshire

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