The number 83 'bus.

I grew up on Devon Road in the Whitehall district of Bristol, U.K. 

It was by no means a major thoroughfare, but as a youngster I thought it to be a very important road, 'cause it was on a 'bus route.


The route was number 83.  It was served by Bristol built single decker buses, very much like the 1938 model portrayed here.

I remember taking the number 83 into "town" with my mother. (To this day the shopping area in the centre of Bristol is referred to as "town",  e.g.  "I went into town"). 

My  particular memory  was probably from  1949/50/51 but  there was something different about this especial  'bus.  

The seats were not upholstered.  Nor were they plastic (which had not been created).

Rather,  they were wooden slat seats, rather like a park bench.  I asked Mum about this.  "Oh", she said "it's a utility 'bus.".

"Utility"   that was the name attached to furniture, clothing etc which was made in the U.K. during WW II.  By Government fiat such items were made to strict specifications in order save and preserve limited resources.  For instance men's trousers were to be made without turn-ups (uk) cuffs (usa) in order to save a few inches of precious fabric.


Back to the 83 bus:

We got off in Carey's Lane with its "Tatler" and "Empire" Theatres, and nearby Redcross St and Elbroad St.

We wandered through to Castle St, the premier shopping street before WW II.  Most of it had been flattened by the bombs which had missed their indended targets -  the Bristol City Docks.

I could see the door way paving stones,  (undestroyed by the bombs),  to the various stores (Boots the Chemist;  Freeman, Hardy and Willis etc.), but the only buildings left intact were the Bristol Cooperative Society  Departmental store, and a branch of the British Home Stores.

Mum would tell me of the pre-war shopping expeditions to Castle St. on Saturday nights when the stores stayed open late.  I could hardy believe her.  All I saw were ruins.

Oh yes, there was also a News Theatre -  a cinema which only showed newsreels.  Mum dragged me in to watch some footage about the British Royal Family.  I was bored.

Just around the corner on Union St. there was a "British Restaurant", one of the few WWII and later 1940's cafes which were sanctioned by the government throughout the U.K. in rationing days,  and served dreadful food!

Urban renewal came along in the 1960's.  As a youth of that era I thought that it was great.   I was happy that the old was being torn down in favour of the new, modern, and automobile-centric world.

As an old fart I am not so sure.  Our cities are being choked to death by cars.

In urban renewal Carey's Lane vanished and was absorbed by a faster?  urban road.  Elbroad St vanished.  Castle Street became an urban park.  

A new shopping centre was built in an area known as Broadmead,  (was it once a broad meadow?).   Milk Street, Old King Street and Philadelphia St  (Bristolians always called it  Philly-i- fi Street) disappeared.

Broadmead was greeted as the latest greatest thing when it was developed in the 1960's.    But it has never been well loved despite efforts to improve it, e.g.  The Galleries and Cabot Circus.  It totters along even as patterns of retail shopping change.

It's never been well loved because  (I think)  it was a planners' dream which was imposed on parts of the City Centre.

Cities used to grow organically.  With higgly-piggly narrow streets and two story buildings they were human friendly.

Planned developments (especially in retail)  are soulless.  They are designed  to sell merchandise, but not to nurture human social intercourse.

I rant on!  

Give me a day or two and I'll rant again, this time  about the abominable and horribly named "University Town Center" a retail scourge in north east Sarasota County FL  and south east Manatee County FL. 

It has nothing to do with a University; it is not a Town; and it is the Center of nothing!.

Here are some pics of Bristol U.K  both pre and post World War 2. 

I (born in 1944) remember some but not all of these places.


  

The  Castle St which my Dad and Mum knew before WWII

 T=

Castle St after the bombing, Mum would take us to the Co-op Departmental Store, one of two or three buildings which survived the Blitz.

The Tatler Cinema on Carey's Lane. It was renowned for showing  X rated films.  There I saw my first Nudie films in which buxom young women played Volley ball, with the camera always above the waist!

The late great Empire Theatre also on Carey's Lane and  owned in my time by the BBC.  There I went aged 10 or 11  to record a Junior School Choir performance  for the BEEB. . I had to piddle  and encountered a male urinal for the very first time.  My Dad explained it later  when I got home.

A few ancient buildings in Broadmead escaped both the bombs and urban renewal.. This one bears the odd name of "Quakers Friars". Once upon a time it was a Friary.  Much later it was a Quaker Meeting House (I think). For many years it was a City  Office at which Civil Weddings took place.  Now it is an "event centre".

Bristol was one of the hubs and hearts of John Wesley's preaching.  It was here that he built a "New Room" in the Horsefair, a place where he could lodge and teach.  He was clear that it was not a new Church (he claimed to be  a loyal Anglican)., but a Meeting Room.

His New Room survived the bombs and the urban planners.   I try to visit it whenever I am in Bristol.

Last but not least the post war planners  of Broadmead sustained the Lower Arcade,  which had survived the bombs.  It's not as grand as the Arcade in Milan (Italy), but it is better than nothing that  than it has survived  Urban renewal  fanaticism 

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And I miss the wonderful # 83 bus of my childhood.

It was my 'bus, not yours!