Last weekend we went to Bristol to spend time with Anna and her partner Gareth. Went on the train this time – not too bad, and then visited the Stradling Collection. We had a lovely day on the Sunday, visiting yet more areas of Bristol we have never been – the Snuff Mills this time. A and G are very good at finding new things to entertain us! Then had a huge Chinese meal and spent time wandering round Ikea – they have an enormous one in Bristol. Back home here, the weather has been sunny and rainless – oh what a surprise! Am fed up with watering the garden. Busy as usual – Mallydams, WI in the evening and a WI outing to the lovely Friary gardens, hair done… and another loo investigation, this time along the sea front from Grosvenor Gardens down to the Pier. Busy too getting my novel ready for its transfer to Kindle and KDP print.
So, what is Snuff Mills? A very attractive area of park and garden leading out of Bristol along the River Frome into the Oldbury Park Estate. The actual Snuff Mill has gone, but there is a restored something-or-other mill, lots of weirs, and lovely walks along the river. It was a paradise for kids and dogs – we enjoyed watching the dogs enthusiastically retrieving balls from the water. The weather was very hot, so it was good to be able to walk mostly in the shade.
Had an enormous lunch in a massive Chinese restaurant above an equally massive Chinese Supermarket, Wai Yee Hong, on an industrial estate near Ikea. There was a similar place in Birmingham, was it Wing Yip? We went to Wai Yee Hong last time we came to Bristol, and I had put in a request to go back. They have a massive Dim Sum menu as well as the Chinese classics – the menu is like a book. Anyway, as to be expected, we over-ordered, and ate until we dropped. Hah, how strange. I looked up my previous post about the place, and used almost the same words last time we went in May 2024! Then, Ikea – what’s not to like? It always makes me want to throw out the entire contents of our house and start again…
Oh – The Stradling Collection. Ken Stradling was an old friend of Anna’s grandmother, the potter Marianne de Trey. The former head of the Bristol Guild, he founded a museum/gallery in Bristol showing his stunning collection of furniture, ceramics and glass. At the moment, there is an exhibition of the work of Sam Haile, Marianne’s husband, who was tragically killed in 1948 while Marianne was pregnant with Anna’s mother. Sam Haile was a well-regarded surrealist potter/painter. Here is one of his pots:
So, back to Hastings!
LOO LATEST – ST LEONARD’S: GROSVENOR GARDENS ALONG TO THE PIER.
Grosvenor Gardens has the grimmest loos I have visited so far. Hastings Council owned. Look, I can see the problem – they are in a very isolated place, near where travellers like to park their vans. They have been repeatedly vandalised and I think, burnt down once. Now in a Portacabin. Very shabby, dilapidated and not clean. To crown it all, when I looked into the Ladies – two cubicles – a very large, dodgy-looking man lurched out of one. ‘This is the Ladies’ I snapped. ‘Sorry love, the Gents has been vandalised,’ he said. The disabled/parents room had its Radar lock hanging off, and the bog paper all over the wet floor. So, not clean, not safe. I wouldn’t use them. Rating 1.
Sadly, a long looless walk along the front to the Beach toilets – underneath the old Azur, opposite the Colonnade. HBC, all is not lost! The old Azur building is looking terrible – what a scandal – but by the steps leading to the beach are some of the best Council loos I have found, second only to the Stade. Spacious, clean white tiles. Disabled/parents room locked with a Radar key. Baby changing facilities in the Ladies, 4 cubicles, clean, well-equipped, not smelly. Philosopher said the Gents was OK too. Rating 6.
Then along to the toilets opposite Warrior Square, just by Goat Ledge. This area is now jumpingly fashionable and busy, with eateries, coffee places, deck chairs on the beach. More Council loos, 3 very cramped gender-neutral separate rooms opening straight onto the busy sea-front. Very crowded – there was a queue and I couldn’t get near enough to look in at first. Inadequate for the numbers of people needing to use them – it doesn’t appear as if Goat Ledge has its own loos. Over-used and pretty ponky. Rating 3.
Next, along Bottle Alley – coffee places down there now – to another very, very low spot of the walk, the Pier. Oh, sad days, remembering what it used to be like, with nice loos in the central building. I hardly ever go on the Pier now, and obviously nor does anyone else, looking at how quiet it was. And there were no publicly available toilet facilities whatsoever. Nothing. Nada. What a total disgrace. There were obviously some in the restaurant building, but it had a big notice outside, ‘Customers only’. In fact, the whole place was covered in nasty notices – ‘Do not sit here’, ‘Customers only’. It was so sad, and so depressing. We did find a hut with three locked loos in it. Locked – as well as with notices plastered all over them. Here is a flavour of the Pier notices.
That Pier business is a total, tragic outrage. It just sits, forgotten, neglected and crumbling back into the state it was in before it was first restored. Here is a Battleaxe post from 2018, when it was sold to Sheik Abid Gulzar. Ah well.
One more loo to do – the Courtyard, by the Source Skate park. Not public loos as such, but open to all customers of the Source Park and the Courtyard, so pretty public. Clean, well-equipped, spacious loos in an unrestored bit of the old baths. Very good baby change facilities in the Ladies. Access is very difficult though, either down steep steps via the Courtyard, or through the skate park. This lowers their rating to 5.
I’ve nearly finished the loos – need to investigate inland next, and of course there is Alexandra Park, with several loo blocks.
Enough now!
