I love Southville: I live here, work here and manage to spend a rather ludicrous amount of time loafing about here. When I first moved to Bristol, penniless and Cornish, I took a room in a beautiful, ramshackle house just off North Street and I’ve stayed round here ever since. I admit that I am completely bias but in sharing a few facts, tales and highlights of The ‘Ville, I hope to go someway in drawing you into my love affair.

For the uninitiated, Southville is a suburb of Bristol in the south-west corner of the city, just over the river from Spike Island. The precise borders of the area, however, are debateable. Ask a range of people for directions down here and they could refer to Southville, Bedminster or Ashton all in one street. Just be content that The ‘Ville is generally focused around the bustling highstreet of North Street and if you can see the Tobacco Factory, you’re in.

Until a decade ago, Southville was a forlorn and dilapidated area, really struggling with many businesses boarded up and not a lot of industry or interest to bring you here at all. That all changed however when a prosperous architect, a Mr. George Ferguson (Southville’s own red-legged celebrity), saved the old Wills tobacco factory from demolition and transformed the building into a multi-purpose cultural centre. They said it would never work but Mr. Ferguson had faith in the regenerative properties of the arts. The Tobacco Factory opened its doors in 2001 and is now at the heart of a regeneration process for the whole area. This slow, arts-based redevelopment has given Southville a great sense of community and it has reborn North Street as an amenities centre. North Street is now somewhere you can go to a proper fruit ‘n’ veg shop, where they’ll weigh your apple, wrap your flowers and there’s a lady in fingerless gloves working the till – what more could you want? Recent meetings and marches against plans for a new supermarket superstore nearby show a united community wanting to protect their independent businesses and the character they bring. Street parties are also an increasing phenomenon, with most roads in Southville hosting a get together at some point in the year.

If being trapped with the next-door neighbours and eating home-made cake is a bit suffocating for you though (it can be), it’s very easy to escape to the open air here. Greville Smyth Park is two minutes away from the action and gets you on the grass, enjoying the trees, shouting children and personal trainers going about their day. There is also a terrific adults’ playground too, especially good fun after a night out (I can take no responsibility for what might happen if you do this, just know I don’t have all my teeth intact). Ashton Court Estate is also an easy walk away which means more open space than you know what to do with and a great view of hot air balloons as they take flight – mornings in Southville are truly beautiful during the Bristol Balloon Fiesta as the dawn launches release a troupe of balloons overhead in a graceful cloud of colour.

As I’ve already mentioned, the arts played a large part in making Southville what it is today and it is this creativity that gives the ‘Ville such a great personality. The Tobacco Factory is a big, red bricked beauty of a building; upstairs in its theatre you can watch an inspiring programme of shows including stand-up, Shakespeare, successful Edinburgh shows, puppetry, magic, music, poetry, opera, kid’s shows and people putting bits of meat on their faces to portray royalty (though that doesn’t happen often). Downstairs you can eat, drink and try not to stand on a baby whilst looking at the regularly changed local artwork, listen to live music and DJ’s, take part in the excellent weekly quiz or browse the Sunday market. Or if you want to deeply engage, there’s the annual Southbank Arts Trail where artists invite you into their homes to see their work; the houses being as revealing as the works themselves. This is typical of Southville’s fondness of culture in unexpected places – be it Mark Thomas talking politics in the venue above the Hen & Chicken pub, Spanish classes in the tiny tapas bar, El Rincon, or Tobacco Factory’s latest venture, The Brewery - a theatre, dance studio, bakery and cheese-makers all housed in an old graffitied MOT garage. There is a great accessibility and inclusiveness to Southville’s establishments and a wealth of cafés, pubs and bars to have a pleasant drink and a bite to eat whilst chatting away.

This may all be sounding a bit middleclass and cosy for you but don’t write Southville off as too safe just yet. For example, the area undergoes a transformation on match days. We are lucky enough to have Ashton Gate stadium on our doorstep and just when you think the cashmere pramface princesses own the place, all your favourite drinking holes are full of Bristol City football fans. The streets bristle with the crackle of nylon shirts and the echoing clop of hooves as the riot police keep things in order and once the game’s underway, the cinematic roars of the crowd can be heard from Fairfield Road to The Chessels - which is a long way and quite astounding. On these days it is easier to spot the places which have not been gentrified, artfully distressed and declared lactose intolerant - they are some of my favourites.

Lunch is a good time to reveal some Southville/Bedminster charm - go to Denny’s for huge doorstep sandwiches, containing any combination you can think of, made to order by a Bristolian matriarch who will disapprove of your skinny jeans and lack of upward inflection. For something hot, Dim Sum Take Away has more room for prams than most of the local establishments but something about the gaudy Formica puts off the Ga-Ga-Gucci crowd. The pictures inside will give little Melody nightmares but the food is cheap, delicious and you can pop in Budget Boozer whilst it’s cooking.

Aldi supermarket is small enough not to suffocate any of the North Street independents and it’s great place to hear lively debates, like the prejudice between a customer and a security guard (the lady in question had a police leg tag and a crack shuffle and wanted to know why this marked her out for suspicion!). The bench outside of Natwest is also a great place to eavesdrop - imagine a Speakers’ Corner fuelled by Natch cider. Lion Stores is a cramped cave of a hardware shop with everything you could ever think to need, manned by people who’ve been in the area through the ups and downs and it also supplies an interesting line in homo-erotic garden statues that bizarrely only get in the window for Valentine’s Say. However, my top pick of the eccentric, eclectic mix that typifies Southville is Stars Bizarre. Situated on North Street, the sign shows a race dog and the shop’s contents spill on to the street - guitars, vinyl, furniture, old annuals and classic telephones are all on offer and stock changes all the time. I won’t say any more as I don’t want to spoil it but it’s definitely worth a visit as part of a trip to The ‘Ville - just don’t touch anything!

Some feel that The ‘Ville has lost its edge - a friend said that everywhere was getting too cleaned up and Easton was the only place that still had some grime to it. This may be true. In Southville, regeneration through the arts has led to an increasingly wealthy, middleclass population which is, of course, going to be reflected in the businesses and general mood of the area. This is starting to happen in other areas such as Stokes Croft with the recent success of Hamilton House/The Canteen and may see the residents soon having to head elsewhere for a more “alternative experience”. For me though, Southville is a great place to live with arts, oddities, mums with money, football fans and Bower Ashton textile types all rubbing along together. I feel safe walking down the street and I can walk to Bristol city centre in 20 minutes along the waterside. Maybe I don’t have interesting enough hair to need to live in any other postcode but a Bristol Uni student would still be perplexed by living South of the river, and that’s cool enough for me.

Morgan Matthews
Photos by Ian Bradley – www.ianbradleyphotography.com