The work has started. Walls have been demolished. Windows put through. The children's playground flattened to make way for the petrol station.
1960's style Hartcliffe will be no more. The Co-op closes this month. I overheard the workers saying not all of them have jobs or they'd been offered a job in Lawrence Weston or Southmead... miles away. The trucks have moved in. Huge dirty things with drivers who frankly don't give a fuck. Well that's how it feels as they thunder past the health centre and Nursery school.
I watched two little lads sadly looking at the once well used playground with swings and slides. They said it shouldn't be allowed. I smiled sadly.
I'll take more Pix soon. Spring is devastated. When I first took him to Symes Avenue I was embarrassed. I thought he'd hate it with it's stark crap architecture but he loved it. He said it had character. Well it won't soon.
:(
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4 comments:
i,m a born & bred hartcliffer who`s
gotten out of the stinking rat infested hole that it`s become !
It turns my guts to think that the years of neglect has turned my once
great hartcliffe community turned into a stinking shit hole.
Three years ago i took my german wife to see my mother & family I was absolutely fucking devastated you call that fucking character you want to get out and about a bit more are babby,it gives a fucking whole wide world of character, as for my german wife episode i took various photographs of her posing with a burnt out car (bishport ave),
outside derelict vandalised houses(pawlett,fulford)and at symes with pathetic merry xmas sign screwed onto a wall wher the chip shop used to be.a great picture i took is at the harriers(divi&mark)with her underneath the greatest pub sign that ever was A WARM WELCOME WITH A FRIENDLY ATMOSPHERE my wife witnessing a fight in the car park at 6 o`clock in the evening.
Do not get me wrong the people are the finest on the planet but what ever they do to improve the shit hole cannot be bad,if i was a tourist i`d shit meself,so come girl it´s been long overdue for a face lift so stop fucking complaning and never look a gift horse in the mouth,have you got to pay for it or what?I shall be returning in 07/08 and i think i shall enjoy seeing a new hartcliffe
and have a good drink with the lads in the pit. auf wiedersehen
Hmm Hartcliffe? I live here.In many ways I know exactly where you're coming from.When I first moved here I found it really hard not to feel depressed every time I saw a single mother with 5 kids or a child with a pound buying a bag of chips for his tea from the Symes Avenue chippy. I guess my posts about it here have a large chunk of Irony. But Paul, thing is I don't want to live in a place that smacks of Brislington or Stoke Gifford. The middle class areas with people who don't give a toss about one another. A place where if your kid kicks a ball over the fence they keep it and give lectures about the youth of today. This area has so much wrong with it but it's colourful and alive.
Symes Ave was a wreck. It could have been different but the shops closed and it was allowed to rot. My gripe is in the fact that Morrisons is opening like any other Morrisons in the city. No character. A vegetable, freezer, booze and bakery section. Numerous security guards (cos they'll need them around here)
So people will say what's wrong with that girl? Surely this is better. Decent shopping? Lovely clean stores with shop assistants trained to tell you to have a nice day?
Maybe I am weird. But I grew up here. I knew it at it's best and I'm sad it's gone.
I love it here. I love the people, I love the crap.
Hartcliffe? Come try it if your hard enough.
Were you at school with me? I recognise your name. My maiden name was Britton?
Trin
x
germany calling,germany calling
hello again trin
just read your comment!
I seem to recognise your surname
britton.i was born in randolph close by the gatcombe 1963 and left hartcliffe school in 1979 being a bricklayer by trade(strong in arm,thick in ead)got married to an hartcliffe girl and moved to hengrove had 5 kids the oldest is 22 the youngest 14 left to work in germany in 94 very, very hard times indeed.
I would`nt like to return to hartiffe for the simple reason is that i`ve made a very good life for myself here i`ve got a beautiful wife,beautiful house all mod cons,
ten times better and bigger than the two bob boxes in bris or stokegifford it gives no definitive class system in the bundes republic.when i was a kid and you kicked a ball over a fence theyed keep it father would say serve you right for upseting the said person
so what does it give now then father goes around knocks on the door bangs nieghbour in the face,returns ball to mini-chav and the nieghbour gets a regular supply of dog-shit posted through the letterbox.entirely all these middle-class people you talk about have less than what most of hartcliffe has and that being they are morgaged up to the eyeballs in debt.
most of them come from council estates anyway,as a kid i always thought anybody with a nice house and car was a rich bastard it just is`nt the case anymore.
i want to shop in clean surroundings, i want to hit the fresh doughnuts,vegetables,freezer&booze department and when its in hartciffe they will too because it`s better than nothing.
p.s
trin i dont want to be hard anymore i`m finished with hard i just want to mow the grass,feed my fish&birds grow my veg knowing i`m not going to get burgled by a filthy rotten pack of smackheads.
take care
paul
Just came across your blog. I was born and raised in Hartcliffe from mid 1950's up until 1968 when my family uprooted to Middlesex. I always remembered Hartcliffe with great fondness but only in the last few years had I had chance to go back. My mother died couple of years ago and I missed her so it caused my mind to keep thinking back to the happiest parts of my chilhood - when I lived in Hartcliffe. So one morning I got in the car and drove down the M4. Temporary insanity I suppose or just shear nodtalgia from the grief I was feeling. I arrived in Hartcliffe and instantly was aware of something bad. It wasn't just the run down appearance of everything but a tangible feeling of gloomy isolation. Arriving outside my old home in Chelvey Close I sat in the car and thought about how it used to be here. An open community, friendly and full of life. I sat there for at least 30 minutes and saw not one person, not even any children playing as we used to. I walked down to Symes Avenue and was totally unprepared for what I saw. Boarded up windows and shops with the shutters down. One of the few shops open was a chemist which had a security guard standing outside! This looked more like some third world scene not the bright place I used to go shopping with my mother. Some teenagers on bikes were openly eyeing me with suspicion. Time to leave, this isn't what I expected. I know nothing stays the same but Hartcliffe had the look of being totally forgotten about. But I hope things continue to improve for Hartcliffe and maybe my next visit won't leave me feeling so sad. All the best.
Shaun
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