Tim Davey: Historic area is dominated by boorish behaviour
I feel like I've been tagged, in the manner of a common criminal. Not for me, though, one of those electronic boots that tells the boys in blue where I am at any given hour of the day.
No. This is a sociological tag. An age thing.
And it's starting to prevent me going where I want to go.
The centre of Bristol is actually where I am talking about. Specifically on a Friday or Saturday night.
Because, after a recent trip into Bristol from the suburbs one weekend evening, I am left unsure as to whether I can be bothered again.
Fellow columnists have railed already this week about the perennial influx of students.
And I have long ago decided that when it comes to the end of a week it's best to leave Whiteladies Road to them and their intensive studies into the effects of alcohol on the human body. Similarly Park Street. Here, where the two cultures, academic and local, mingle, the atmosphere, I feel, gets even more unsavoury as the night draws on. It never used to be that way.
But there's worse to come.
The trip to which I referred at the outset was to attend someone's evening wedding reception. It wasn't a late starter, around seven-ish, so we hopped on a bus and arrived in very good time.
Time enough to take a drink along the waterside. But why would you? The place was full of lairy blokes, shouting, bawling, boozing. All were themselves old enough to know better. None, I suspect, had ever possessed a student card.
We wandered along right to the end where our salvation hove into view. Bordeaux Quay bar and restaurant is truly an oasis of licensed sanity in an iconic, historic area now, sadly, dominated by boorish beer-fuelled behaviour. And, remember, this was only just about Saturday tea-time for most of us.
Anyway, fortunately, the wedding "do" was around the corner and a bit away from here but when we emerged late night to go home, the city centre scene had deteriorated big time.
Waiting for a bus was no option. In fact my wife rejected the idea outright after our first few steps into night-time Bristol from the relative calm of the wedding party.
So we hailed a taxi. We were heading out of town but the initial stages of our journey, travelling around the Centre, were an eye-opener. Various people attempted to clamber on the vehicle as the driver stopped at traffic lights. At any moment you half expected someone to wrench the doors open and jump in.
What I had not noticed anywhere though, were any police. I have a suspicion they may have been inside a large anonymous white structure, rather akin to an armoured portable cabin, that was plonked right in the middle of the Centre.
They were inside, I guess. Observing the rest of us, presumably. It would be interesting to know what they thought.
7 Comments
by Bristol ian, North of the River
Tuesday, November 03 2009, 6:29PM
“Welcome to Britain, virtually every city centre has been this way since the year dot on friday and saturday nights.
Stick to the suburbs - you won't get blood/booze/sick on your crocs then...and you won't be that nause couple getting in everyones way at the bar while you try each and every real ale before you buy 2 halfs of it and go and sit in the corner tutting and looking down your noses at all the plebs having a good time.”
by Mrs Dixon says Relax, Bristol
Monday, November 02 2009, 3:46PM
“Resident erm non resident
fictitious (allegedly) journalist, :
'ohhhh yes you are',
'ohhhh no im not'
...writes about students,
followed by an unknown soldier keyboard warrior bringing equilibrium to the :
'is it Students or Bristol's own that can technicolour yawn the furthest'
Martin Andrews again?”
by Blackbeard, The high seas
Monday, November 02 2009, 9:48AM
“Clambering on board boats used to be part of the weekend ritual in Bristol, so it is little wonder to me that young 'uns were clambering on to cars. I may not be able to sail my ship into the Centre since the Council built those stupid fountains and covered up the Frome, but even so, I find Bristol anthropologically fascinating on Friday and Saturday evenings.”
by DCI Gene Hunt, Hyde, 1973
Sunday, November 01 2009, 5:51PM
“You just redeemed yourself.
Savvy?”
by The Hedgehog, Horfield
Saturday, October 31 2009, 10:03PM
“To be fair, my particular dig wasn't at the police, but at the damfool priorities they are given by our politicians.”
by James, South West
Saturday, October 31 2009, 8:54PM
“Who is the author of this piece? Is it a letter to the Post or an anonymous journalist's blog?
If it is a journalist the author must be an awfully worldly-unwise one to be surprised at the antics witnessed.
This sort of thing has been going on for years and certainly not just in Bristol. Go to any UK city or large town on a Friday or Saturday night and you will see similar behaviour.
Even regal Bath and homely Taunton provide the same sort of yobbish backdrops at nocturnal weekends.
It's easy to blame the police for all of society's ills. They are a convenient target but given the huge amount of tasks they are supposed to carry out no wonder they struggle to deal with any of them satisfactorily.
Radio Bristol was having a go at them on Friday for the parking problems round Clifton. Had they cracked down on this you can be sure others would be saying they should be dealing with more important matters.
Our society is to blame for the loutish behaviour that has become part of the everyday scene of life in Britain - all of us, including the author of the piece, Hedgehog and me - not the police in isolation.”
by The Hedgehog, Horfield
Saturday, October 31 2009, 6:13PM
“I gave up on the Centre at weekends years ago when I found my feet sticking to the pavement. I looked down to see I was wading through a pool of blood.
As to the police, the were probably relaxing after a busy day checking for people putting household rubbish in the wrong bins.
To quote Bob Dylan "The police don't need you here and, man, they expect the same".”