UKC

I'm moving to Bristol for a new job at the end of September, but I don't know the area. Any places to look for/avoid, and any good walls/crags nearby?

It's been 9 years since we moved away but Southville and Bedminster was a great area with North Street good far bars and cafes and a younger population.  We lived on Windmill hill by Victoria Park.  I guess it's now really expensive as professional people and couples were selling flats and buying houses down there hence the growth.

Bristol is a great place to live, climbing and mountain biking and a hop across to Whales.

Cheers

Toby

Where's the job?

Crags: Loads of stuff. Avon Gorge, Cheddar Gorge, loads of stuff south of Bristol around the Weston-super-Mare area and the Wye Valley is just a short drive over the Severn Bridge.

Walls: UCR - St. Werberghs, Clip 'n Climb - St. Werbergh's, Redpoint - Bedminster, TCA - Barton Hill (bouldering).

As for places to live, being a country lad I'd say anywhere outside of the city! 😄 Clifton is very nice but I expect it is pricey. Easton looks like the opposite end of the scale.

What are you like, what do you like to do and do you have a budget in mind?

Greetings from Easton! I love it here.

Easton is definitely a mixed bag; some bits around st marks road etc are really nice... and then like 200 meters away some bits of stapleton road are terrifying shit holes :P 

The three kind of areas which have a good mix of residential, nice highstreet, pubs and bars are whiteladies road, southville/bedminister and gloucester road. There's 4 or 5 walls scattered pretty evenly throughout the city. The avon gorge is an amazing venue but have to be slightly careful about route selection till you're properly hooked, theres's sketchy multi pitch adventures and very pleasant cragging all bundled together. 

Met a new colleague at work today.  "I'm into bouldering!" he says  "Waddya know?" I said, "I used to climb a bit but then had kids and...anywhere where do you go - TCA?  Redpoint?"

"Flashpoint and the Mothership.".

I think I am out of touch!

Welcome to Brizzle.  It's better by bike : )

I've lived in a few different areas of Bristol over the years (never south of the river though *shudder*). I've lived near the cricket ground for the past 8 years and can highly recommend it (and the rest of Bishopston). You're at the level of Gloucester Road where the nice shops and restaurants are (rather than the noisy bars), but you're only a ten minute walk from those pubs and bars if you want them. Town is a 10 min bike ride or half hour walk. Purdown is really close (you can walk over through stoke park into the frome valley and trace that greenery all the way out to frenchay). St werburghs is 5 mins down the cycle track through the alotments (for the lentil-munching crystal-touchers and also the climbing wall UCR). Good access to m32 to get on the m4/m5. Lots of green areas like st Andrews park. My local is The Lazy Dog, which is a mega pub. Lidl and Aldi 5 min walk. 

The case for Easton - I'm right by the Bristol-Bath Railway Path national cycle route. 6mins by bike to TCA, 15 to Bloc and 18 to UCR. 10mins to town. The East Bristol Brewery Trail, with exceptional local craft brewery tap rooms starts here. Hugely multicultural area, mostly Carribbean and Asian community meaning lots of life, lots of great food and a great world food shop in Sweet Mart on St Mark's Road. A mix of young families, working class locals, middle class young professionals, hippies, hipsters, anarchists and yoga teachers. Great cafes, restaurants and some pretty unique pubs as well as more mainstream fair, but still with great beer and good food, like The Greenbank where I take my mum when she visits. The amazing St George's Park is 10-15mins walk depending where you are. Stapleton Rd train station means you're minutes from Temple Meads for connections to London Paddington, South Wales and wherever, plus minutes across town to Gloucester Road or Clifton shops, bars and restaurants. Looks a bit tatty (thanks local govt cuts) but very friendly, as in say-hello-to-strangers friendly, in a way I've not experienced in another city.

Boomer Doomer was probably right - his version of hell, I expect.

Other areas if you're relatively young, increasing in budget/poshness: St Paul's, Bedminster, St George, Montpelier, Horfield, St Andrews, Bishopston, Cotham, Kingsdown, Redland, Southville, Clifton, The Centre (if you're mad)

Areas to actively avoid: Hartcliffe, Withywood, Knowle, Southmead. Although I'm sure someone must love them...

No one has mentioned Pill.  Go and have a look if you have time.  Historically this was the village at the mouth of the river where the Severn/Avon pilots lived.  Very white, rough and a closed community.  But its changing.  Its right on the cycle path into Bristol and the fabled passenger railway from Portishead (20 plus years in the planning) probably will happen.  The village still has a great community with lots of thriving pubs (not cafes!), choirs etc.  

I walked to Pill during one of the lockdowns and was pretty put out by the amount of aggressive signs about the place put up by locals. Did not seem like a friendly place at all. 

The gyms are scattered across the city, and it might help to know the following if you are deciding where to live.

-UCR/TCA: Quite old school but they have made some improvements in the last couple years . TCA has a good new airy upstairs area with big gym set up, and UCR have a new circuit board set up.  TCA has more basic problems than the other gyms combined but the layout of TCA in particular can make it challenging to complete structured training (circuit boards are badly positioned so people are walking under you all the time, moonboard and woody are again shoved in a corner and you'll have people walking under you etc). Worth the sacrifice if you just want to climb problems relevant to outdoor climbing though.

-Flashpoint/Redpoint: Good training set up at both.  Redpoint has a great steep lead wall.  Boulder problems are generally more on the compy and heightest end of the spectrum which can be demoralising if you are short but they have slightly improved this in the last year or so.  A pain in the ass to get to Redpoint if you live north of the river apparently.  

-Bloc:  Expanded recently when Bananafingers moved out. Most "myproteiny" of the gyms.  Heard the problems are all really soft these days which might be a positive or a negative.  Good training areas. 

I don't think the whales are too keen on that sort of behaviour...

Of all Bristol delights Pill would not be on the list!

Easton, St Wherburghs, Bedminster, Totterdown, Southville, St Pauls, Montpellier, etc etc.

Pill!?!?

Here are some friendly Pill vibes from earlier in the year:

https://www.instagram.com/p/CKtIs0PDUrt/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

Everywhere is a mixed bag. Go to a gastropub in Bedminster, or an organic cafe, and I'm sure it's charming. Go in Asda and there's blue lights in the toilets so it's harder to find a vein...

I would say the places I would avoid are the big estates from the 50's and 60's on the outskirts of the city. They just feel disconnected from the cool stuff that people might want to move to Bristol for.

Bristol is great for climbers. Lots of indoor walls of different types, and some actual cliffs that people seem to like to complain about (I wouldn't drive 500 miles for a weekend in Avon Gorge but I'm more than happy to drive for 15 minutes for an evening there).

A 45 minute drive can take you to many great climbing locations in Somerset or Wales.

I guess where you live depends on your budget. I quite fancy a mansion near Leigh Woods. That sort of Swiss style one overlooking the bridge maybe...

It's also worth noting that if you are climbing <HVS or mainly sport, the gorge is not the best venue. You'll want easy-access to the motorway to get over to Wye Valley for after-work hits. Worth considering that if you went for Bedminster/Southville, you'd have to drive through the centre which will add 30 mins to your journey.   

Nipping up the portway and to the m4 via m49 is actually quite quick to get over the bridge from south of the river. Also living south puts you in good striking distance of cheddar and nearby crags to the south of the city, as well as closer to the gorge.  

I have lived North and now South Bristol, and now would probably stay South, in Bedminster.

- The Bedminster wider area is generally all ok, although like anywhere does have less nice bits.

- Easy (ish) access to Motorway via Portway/Leigh Woods. 45 mins Drive to Cheddar, Brean, Wye Valley

- 10 Mins to Avon or Leigh Woods, Avon has some amazing climbing once you embrace it and explore all the areas.

- 5 mins to Redpoint or Flashpoint, which in my opinion are the better indoor walls.

If I had to choose other parts of the city it would be,

- Westbury-onTrym/Henbury

- Horfield/Bishopston/Eastville

As they both are nice areas that offer similar access to the climbing.

However, Bristol rocks generally, so I'm sure wherever you end up will be ok.

fair point.  but when an organic fair trade coffee shop opens in Pill I will let you know! Its a good place to spot otters though.