It’s been an interesting few days because we’ve been over to Bristol – our city of birth- three times, and each time we’ve been able to revisit familiar places. This one is particularly important to me because when Christmas Steps was virtually rebuilt many decades ago, my Grandfather, who was over 70 at the time, came out of retirement to work on the medieval timbers because he was one of very few carpenters who actually knew how these timber framed buildings worked. So I always feel a particular affinity with this important remnant of the City, most of whose medieval buildings were destroyed by bombing during the 2nd world war; and those that weren’t were mostly demolished by planners, just as they were in Bath.
But these few buildings are surrounded and dwarfed by all the usual canyons of undistinguished glass and steel towers. Bristol, a creative boom city, is from a pedestrian’s street level point of view, noisy and rather shabby. There are many empty shops in what were once important shopping centres. Plato thought that cities were a work of art but he’d have held his tongue if he’d been here. Here’s a photo of the now derelict original Bristol Royal Infirmary – the revamped modern hospital is just across the road but why on earth they don’t do something about this ghastly mess is a mystery.
But we couldn’t resist revisiting the Museum and Art Gallery where we found one of the pieces of pottery that most inspired my interest in Chinese ceramics. This Chün dynasty bowl is inspirational in its restraint – an object of meditation,
Later we had lunch at Watershed and were greatly amused to see that so many apparent pitching meetings were going on in the cafe. We felt a bit odd; actually talking to one another with no anticipation of a future commission whilst sharing a bottle of wine and keeping our mobiles in our pockets without a single laptop between us. Most of our fellow diners wore furrowed brows for fear of being suspected of slacking, drank water and spoke of going forward, hiding behind their de rigeur screens. Later again as we walked to the bus station and passed the foot of Christmas Steps again, Madame pointed out the rather elaborate birthday cake she would like me to bake for her. Very well Madam!
Hi Dave,
I read your note on the Christmas Steps pub with interest as we are working with the owner Dave Smeaton on bringing the upper floors back to life! Of particular interest would be knowing when your grandfather worked on the building as most information is lost it would seem. If you can help, it would be much appreciated.
Robin Gray
Hi Robin – thanks for your note. I’m afraid I can’t be much help because there were never any written records kept. My grandfather’s name was Thomas (Tommy) Cox and he was a carpenter by trade; I remember him telling me how he started out as a bottom sawyer in a sawpit. I know he came out of retirement to do the Christmas Steps job because he understood timber frame buildings. I’ve a vague recollection that he was employed by Cowlins – well known Bristol building company. He cursed his buildings up – very colourful – and most of the time worked by eye. 5’2″ tall and I can’t remember ever seeing him without an unlit rollup stuck to his lip – he died at 86 so he probably rarely lit them! I think they described him as a vernacular builder – ie most of the time the drawings were on the back of a fag packet. He was entirely self-taught, built the first wireless set in his village (Stoke Row in Oxfordshire) helped me build my first crystal set and gave me my first slide rule . He was probably the most influential person in my life.
Cheers
Dave
PS he often signed his work so if you come across the initials TPC on a timber it will be him. I think this must have been in the mid to late ’50’s