2012

Hannibal Lector were one of the heavier Czech hardcore bands at the festival, but I took this photo more to illustrate the tremendous amount of dust at the festival. This was maybe the most unpleasant thing about the festival, even if it looks cool in a photo. The food was also limited, as only one tent was serving vegetarian food, only one tent had water (if memory serves), and many of the (fake punk, BMW-driving) fans taunted anyone going to them. Of course, walking was difficult, as so many people were unconscious on the ground that I had to zig zag at all hours of the day and night.

In my opinion, Czech ska bands are usually better than Czech punk bands, hardcore bands excepted. This was Ska N' Dal.

The Exploited were the last big name to play at the festival, and I made a point of going to bed afterward, leaving the next day. It was a great set, but very hard to get close to. The crowd was probably the largest of the festival.

I got lucky on this shot, at least getting Wattie Buchan's Mohawk. To be fair, he's a 56-year-old (then 55-year-old) punk rocker so it isn't as cheesy a haircut if he has one. :-)

This wasn't my first visit to Bristol, but it was the first extended visit during which I got to take photographs. This is, if I'm not mistaken, the Albert Lodge, which is in the Clifton neighborhood (if I'm remembering correctly).

This is called the Arch House, which as I recall is close to the Albert Lodge. It has a deli in it, as you can see from the sign. I presume its heritage predates the deli, though.

The Clifton Suspension Bridge is probably the most famous landmark in the Clifton area. It started as one of Isambard Kingdom Brunel's earliest projects, but was not completed until 1864, five years after Brunel's death. Much of the delay was financial, as several of the sponsoring companies went bankrupt. Because it wasn't a railway bridge, it didn't benefit from the success of any of Brunel's railway companies. In fact, the opposite was true. As late as 1851, materials were taken from the Clifton project in order to build the Royal Albert Bridge on the Great Western Railway (also called the Saltash bridge). Eventually, the Clifton Bridge was completed with chains (it's a suspension bridge, but uses chains instead of cables) taken from the Hungerford Suspension Bridge into Charing Cross Station in London. At that time (1860), the Charing Cross Bridge was being rebuilt. Part of the impetus was to memorialize Brunel following his death.

This is a memorial plaque on the bridge, albeit added in 1986, to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the foundation stone, rather than to discuss Brunel in any depth.

This is a side view from the bridge, looking north towards the Clifton Observatory.

This is a view of the River Avon from the Clifton Suspension Bridge, looking south towards the city centre of Bristol. Although the Avon is associated with Stratford-upon-Avon, the birthplace of Shakespeare, it is also the main river through Bristol, and traditionally Bristol's access to the Bristol Channel. This is not insignificate historically as for several centuries Bristol's port was the most important aspect of its economy.

This shot shows the motorized cradle used for maintenance of the bridge. I actually don't know what year this was installed, but it doesn't appear in older pictures. Certainly, prior to it's being added, maintenance of the bridge was probably tricky. I haven't been able to locate information on fatalities among the maintenance crews before as opposed to after the cradle's installation.

Here's another shot of the Clifton Suspension Bridge, taken from the embankment along the Avon. Getting far enough back, but not too far back, can be difficult without a wide angle lens.

This is the entrance to the Clifton Rocks Railway's lower station. This was a funicular railway that operated from 1893 until 1936 between Clifton and the Avon Harbour at the bottom. The entire railway was underground, in the mountainside. Ever since its closure, it has remained a tourist attraction, and occassionally toured with qualified guides. It's actually been a tourist attraction as an abandoned railway for far longer than it was an active railway. In recent years, the trust that preserves its remains has considered restoring it to operation, but a recent price estimate was around 15 million pounds.

Although it has those upright concrete supports you can see, the old Clifton Rocks Railway's Bristol Harbour station can still be identified as such. Note the lettering. Actually, the lettering was the only reason that I found it.

I found this smokestack on this building close to the famous Albion dockyards. I can't be sure, but it looks like it could have originally be a funnel on a steamship.

A lot of the Albion dockyards aren't open to the public even today, although there is some access because a lot of private boat owners dock nearby. While Albion handle far smaller boats and ships than in the past, they still do a fair amount of business in refitting. I don't know the status of these railway sidings, but the Bristol Docks Railway, now primarily a steam tourist railway, is nearby.

Here's the official entrance to the Albion Dockyards in Bristol. Established in 1845, Albion played a major role in the closing years of the British Empire, which was heavily dependent on shipping. The primary cause for its decline, as well as the decline of Bristol as a port, was that in spite of Isambard Kingdom Brunel's installation of a "sluice" system that pumped mud out of the Avon and its associated waterways, Bristol's port was too shallow for the larger ships that Brunel himself had contributed to promoting.

A few days before I went to Bristol, I was going through Wikipedia entries on on 19th-Century steam ships, partly because of my concern regarding the U.S.S. Olympia, which is in danger of scrapping. One of the preserved steamships that I read about was the S.S. Great Britain, which I had presumed was long scrapped. To my surprise, I read the story of its rescue and preservation in the 1970's. I had forgotten it was sent to Britain, and when I saw it in the harbor I just assumed it was an old whaling ship or even a U.S. Navy ship (due to the black paint with the white stripe down the side). My taxi driver noticed me looking at it, and brought it up. He asked if I knew what ship it was. I mentioned that I had been reading about old ships, and that I knew it couldn't be the Great Britain. He corrected me that it really was, so I went to see it the next day. I took a large number of photos of it, and the ones I'm posting to iPernity are only a small portion of them. This is the stern, of course. The dry dock that it's displayed in has been permanently pumped out, and wavy glass resembling water has been installed around the waterline, with a little bit of water pumped over it. Visitors are allowed under the glass to see the hull below the waterline.