Night Walks Clifton October 21st

Going to The Christmas Steps to meet a friend of a friend.

The wind is fresh – truly autumnal – and there’s been a sprinkling of rain on the streets. The leaves are still mostly on their branches.

On Oakfiekd Road the copper beeches whisper to each other like waves as the clouds scud over towards the Avon Gorge. It’s the same direction the seagulls fly every evening in the summer.

The lido has its blue spot lights surrounding the door. On first sight it could be a nightclub but the warm chlorine accented air coming from a vent reveals what it is. It’s the best place in Bristol.

Down past the Triangle. The students are here. A group of girls in Lycra pour out of Anytime Fitness chatting busily and smile hasty goodbyes.

The straight steep hill of Park St slopes down towards the city centre. Cables criss cross from one side to another carrying spheres. They could be Christmas decorations or for Halloween?

As I turn into Park Row, the rain starts in earnest falling in straight lines and darkening the pavement in minutes. A group of three Asian girls squeal and huddle under an inadequate white brolly.

I reach the top of Christmas Steps and a wet, obscured Bristol unfolds itself in front of me. Some of it is like a Georgian print of the old town while graffiti on the right hand wall and a sixties tower block – Colston Tower – create a visual and historic mashup.