Located in Bedminster, East Street is one of Bristol's and is a constantly evolving melting pot of ancient buildings and hip new businesses, street art and third-generation traders.
But to what extent has the ongoing economic situation and cost of living impacted traders at East Street?
We talked to four traders to see how business is going and the impacts the cost of living crisis, high energy bills and roadworks in the area have had. Here’s what we found:
1. BS3 Carpets and Flooring
Anne-Marie, who had been at her boyfriend's shop for seven years, shared: "I run the shop now and he goes out and does all the fitting. But the reason he does all the fitting is because of the cost of living there. We can't afford to pay anybody else so he's had to go back out at the age of 48 to actually fit the carpet by himself instead of leaving it to the younger generation." When asked about the Bedminster Business Improvement District, which was discontinued in November, she continued: "To be honest, I personally never actually felt any benefit from it because we are quite out of the way because I think it was more concentrated on the main East Street and the main North Street so although we're East Street we don't really factor into it because we're not kind of a pedestrian area like up there we're kind of separated from them. We felt that we were kind of separated. So yeah, we didn't really see a benefit at this end. I obviously saw the benefit of everything that went on down that end. But at this end, we kind of just keep ourselves to ourselves, really." And commented about the impact of the Clean Air Zone: "Well, because most of our carpet fitters have got kind of older vans and so well it's not impacted us, it's impacted our customers because they've got to pay the clean air zone charge now just to come to the shop even. So if you live on the other side of town, you've got to come through the clean air zone and even to come to our shop because if you go out coronation road, that's a clean air zone. So just try to turn around to come here and because of all the road works down there as well, people don't come here because they don't want to go through the road works, it's all one way isn't it? So you've got to go out onto the cleaner air zone to get back around. So people don't like to do it. They used to park in Asda, but you can't park in Asda anymore to come over to the shop because you've got to go to the clean air zone to get out of the car park. "
2. Revival Market
At Revival Market, Fan shared: "I think that it works in the opposite way if you're a shop. It really depends on what you do. If you're dealing with the food and electric bills and the cost of food has gone up so much. The local cafes I know are closing. So there are issues like that but with something like this, Bedminster is kind of the epicentre of gentrification and money coming in which is what's pushing all the marginalized people out, but as somebody that works in a shop, it just means more money into this economy, into this personal shop, because there's people with more money in the area. So yeah, on a personal level, it could be quite a different thing, but as a business, I think it's positive."
3. Preserve Foods
Tiriel from Preserve Foods shared: "The cost of living affects everyone and all small businesses. We buck the trend a bit with sales growing and doing ok, although this year there will be a big impact on costs with the rise in wages. With regards to the roadworks, they started soon after we opened so it's difficult to measure any impact on sales. There is a negative impact on pedestrian safety as everyone uses East Street as a cut-through, although the road is supposed to be closed between 7am and 7pm. The lack of parking does have a negative impact on footfall on East Street."
4. Zings
Joe, the owner of Zings, said: "We've only had the shop here for about three months. So with the whole cost of living stuff, it's all like we kind of came into it whilst it was already happening. So we haven't really had anything like a before the cost of living crisis and after change, it's just been, we started whilst it was happening sort of thing. So yeah, for us, we haven't really noticed the difference because it's always been like that for us. "I mean, some of the stuff's a bit expensive like the bills but it's not too bad, we kind of just about can kind of get by but it's not easy. With everything being more expensive, I guess it means people have less money to spend on stuff like clothes, especially when it's like some of the designer stuff people aren't as interested in when they haven't got as much money. Throughout the week, it can be quieter, on the weekends it's a lot better. "I find the footfall alright, it was just for us because we knew it was about getting people to realize we were here so a lot of people still come by and go 'I live in the area and I didn't even know you guys were here yet' and we've been here nearly three months so it's trying to get our name out there."