‘If I took that money now, I’d run down East Street naked!’ - we meet Bedminster traders battling to stay open

The cheery red sign on Bedminster Bridge reminds people that East Street is ‘open for business’. It tells passersby to ‘support your local traders’ with a reminder that they offer ‘fresh, friendly, great value’ and that parking is available.

On a wet weekday morning in November, the reality of East Street is quite different. The shops are empty and there are only a few people going about their daily business in a street that was once packed with local shoppers.

“Bedminster is f***ed,” grumbles one flat-capped pensioner spotting my notebook outside St Catherine’s Place. “I remember when this street was so busy you couldn’t get through the crowds but look at it now,” gestures the octogenarian who didn’t want to give his name but proudly told me he was ‘born and bred Bedminster’, adding ‘there aren’t many of us left’.

Earmarked for redevelopment once the other building works are completed nearby, the units in the once busy St Catherine’s Place shopping precinct are all empty and boarded up apart from Iceland and Farm Foods. Close to the deserted precinct entrance, Kelvin Temblett has run Kelvin’s for the past 25 years although there has been a butchers shop there since the 1930s.

A butcher for 50 years, Kelvin put the shop on the market earlier this year and he finally has a buyer. It will retain the name and Kelvin, 66, will continue to work there a couple of days a week as an employee.

“It’s dead today but we actually had quite a busy week last week,” says Kelvin. “Saturday was really good which was great, but I’ve started to close on Mondays so I can have a day off. It’s generally quieter here and customers say it’s a pain with the roadworks.”

Ah, the roadworks. Ask any trader in East Street and the subject of the ‘temporary’ roadworks around the area soon crops up. Nearby Malago Road and Dalby Avenue are the subject of two years of temporary road changes, due to be completed in 2024.

This is for the major work being carried out on what councillors and developers call ‘Bedminster Green’, parcels of land between the back of East Street and the start of Windmill Hill.

These include a 17-storey tower block for students, two further tower blocks at Little Paradise and a three-storey car park. Although East Street is open northbound for bus services and cycles, the roadworks have meant that Malago Road and Dalby Avenue are one-way (southbound only) and many shoppers now have to park at Asda and walk back up to the shops at East Street, or simply don’t bother.

Jantzen Smith has run Shoe Tappers, a shoe repair shop and key-cutting service, for almost nine years. He says although he has his regulars for watch batteries and keys, business has dropped significantly and takings are down.

“Back in the 1980s when I was working in my uncle’s shoe repair shop in the city centre, I would spend 80% of my day on the shoe machine - it’s about 10% now, although I have noticed a few more people having their shoes repaired since the cost of energy went up. They used to chuck them away but now they’re getting them mended.

“In 1983, my uncle was taking more money in a week then than I am now. He was taking £1,500 a week on average 40 years ago. I can’t remember the last time I took that in a week - if I took that sort of money now, I’d run down East Street naked in celebration!”

Jantzen, who travels to his shop from Weston-super-Mare every day, says he feels let down by the lack of help local shops like his have had since the roadworks. He says: “Bristol City Council hasn’t helped us one iota regards the closure of the Malago Road and Dalby Avenue and people don’t come down here.

“People can get everything they need under one roof in Asda and the people from Hartcliffe and Bishopsworth who used to come down now have to make a massive detour and they’re not willing to do it.

“It really has put a lot of small businesses on the precipice of going under and, although I’m lucky in that respect, a lot of the landlords still want to put the rents up.”

Darren Jones has run East Street Fruit Market for the past 30 years. His lease is up for renewal at the end of the year and he says he’s not sure what he’s going to do. He says: “I haven’t decided yet - I’ve paid up until Christmas but I’m talking to the landlord at the moment.”

Like other small traders, Darren says he feels let down by Bedminster BID and he won’t even attend the meetings now. He says: “The BID is a waste of time if you ask me. I don’t go to the BID meetings anymore because it’s two hours of my time wasted.

“They haven’t spent any money on the area. Actually, they’ve put some twinkly lights up but nobody sees those because nobody comes down here at night.”

Darren says the best thing to happen in East Street recently was last month’s eat:Bedminster food festival, which attracted thousands of people, many of whom hadn’t been to East Street before. The event was organised by Eat Festivals, which runs similar events across the South West and they have already pencilled in next September for the second eat:Bedminster.

“It was a really good day,” says Darren. “And we’ve had busy Saturdays since then so I think a lot of people came down for the festival and found East Street for the first time. We want to encourage people from further afield to come down here and more events like that could be the answer.”

A couple of doors down from the greengrocers is Emporium, run by Hayley Blake who has worked there for 24 years. Originally a pet supplies shop, it has diversified since the pandemic and now also sells vintage clothes and collectables.

One of the biggest sides of the business is still the bird food and she has customers who have been shopping with her since it opened. She says: “I have lots of little old ladies who have budgies and they’ve been coming here for years - you can’t buy a bag of parrot or finch food in Asda!

“But the roadworks have killed us really,” says Hayley, who admits her husband is one of the construction workers on the site of the new tower blocks being built around the corner.

“I’ve lost a lot of my older customers because they can’t park nearby where it’s walkable to the shop. Some park at Asda and come up here on their mobility scooters to get what they want, but they won’t do that when it’s rubbish weather.

“A lot of them are also frightened to death of the Clean Air Zone because they have old cars.”

And, like other traders, Hayley isn’t a fan on the local Bedminster BID. She says: “We have a meeting once a month, we tell them what we want and they go away and they get somebody in to do a consultation, then somebody else to do a consultation - they’re in a permanent consultation mode and nothing actually gets done.

“They get paid and there’s money in the pot, but nothing happens. We were supposed to have all the bollards painted, for example, and that didn’t happen, and now they say they’re putting new planters in front of the shops.”

But it’s not all doom and gloom in East Street. There may be empty units but there are also new businesses starting to open, too.

The latest is the ceramics studio Make Bristol, which was opened by friends Liz Hammond and Jenny Fehon at the end of September. Liz, a former art and design lecturer, describes the unit as ‘an education production studio’ and it holds courses in ceramics as well as selling products made by resident potters and artists.

Most of the courses so far have been sold out, including the forthcoming Christmas mug-making event, and this former hairdressers is quickly establishing itself as the new kid on the block in East Street.

It was made possible by Liz and Jenny getting help from the ‘vacant commercial property grant scheme’ run by the council. Grants of £2,500 to £10,000 were awarded to people opening new premises as part of the council’s city centre and high streets recovery and renewal programme after the pandemic.

For Liz and Jenny, who both live in Totterdown, it meant that Make Bristol could become a reality after looking at other sites that were too expensive for a new start-up business.

Liz says: “We did look at North Street but the rent was too high and our landlady here is lovely so it was perfect for us. We’ve had a really positive reaction from the locals, but we’re also getting people from Kingsdown and Redland coming down.

“People seem really interested that it’s something different for East Street. People say this could be the next North Street and Southville and I agree.

“Maybe they should pedestrianise it - that would complete a lovely route that leads people from North Street to the city centre with us in the middle. I really think it could happen in the next three years - imagine that!”

Simon Dicken, Chair of Bedminster BID and manager of the East Street branch of Wilko, said: “We realise the frustrations of the traders at the series of circumstances which are currently affecting all our businesses.

“I can assure them that we are working as hard as possible within our funding, while also working with Bristol City Council to implement some larger spends through a WECA grant. This will shortly include painting the bollards which feature all the way down the street and the implementation of planters to bring some more greenery to the streets.”