At Spanish restaurant Bravas, Fabia Selwood-Miller, the Operations Manager, said: “Christmas season’s been good. Not the best weather, which is expected, but it's been good. There's been a lot of road work going on on Cotham Hill for pedestrianisation, which we really fought for. Annoyingly, we had to get rid of our outside for a month, but it's not so bad considering it was meant to be a lot longer. It's definitely nice to have it back, the street looks great. And since we've had it back, we've had a lot of people eating outside, which is lovely, despite the weather. So, yeah, it's worked out really well, I think, for most places on the street, which is great.” At Spanish restaurant Bravas, Fabia Selwood-Miller, the Operations Manager, said: “Christmas season’s been good. Not the best weather, which is expected, but it's been good. There's been a lot of road work going on on Cotham Hill for pedestrianisation, which we really fought for. Annoyingly, we had to get rid of our outside for a month, but it's not so bad considering it was meant to be a lot longer. It's definitely nice to have it back, the street looks great. And since we've had it back, we've had a lot of people eating outside, which is lovely, despite the weather. So, yeah, it's worked out really well, I think, for most places on the street, which is great.”
At Spanish restaurant Bravas, Fabia Selwood-Miller, the Operations Manager, said: “Christmas season’s been good. Not the best weather, which is expected, but it's been good. There's been a lot of road work going on on Cotham Hill for pedestrianisation, which we really fought for. Annoyingly, we had to get rid of our outside for a month, but it's not so bad considering it was meant to be a lot longer. It's definitely nice to have it back, the street looks great. And since we've had it back, we've had a lot of people eating outside, which is lovely, despite the weather. So, yeah, it's worked out really well, I think, for most places on the street, which is great.”

We visit the Bristol street that has been pedestrianised and ask the traders what impact it has had

Work on making Cotham Hill traffic-free was completed last month

By Adriana Amor
Published 10th Jan 2024, 13:35 BST
Updated 10th Jan 2024, 13:38 BST

The permanent pedestrianisation of Cotham Hill was completed in the last week of December with the installation of a new road layout and motorised traffic being banned from some sections.

The scheme follows a two-year trial and a consultation in which the council said there was strong support for keeping the area between Whiteladies Gate and Hampton Lane and between Hampton Park and Abbotsford Road pedestrianised.

We had the opportunity to talk with traders to see how the Christmas season had treated their business and the impacts of the pedestrianisation of the street on their business.

Overall, they had not seen much impact on the business by the pedestrianisation but some outline the area looked nicer.

Here's what we found:

We had the opportunity to talk with traders to see how the Christmas season had treated their business and the impacts of the pedestrianisation of the street on their business.

At Rubicon cafe, the manager said: “The students are important to us and they were off I think for like three weeks or something. That's why we were a little bit quieter than usual [over Christmas]. But it has been good, very well, yeah. And we have lots of regular customers as well. The business was not affected over Christmas, but we celebrated here with our regular customers. Everything was perfect and still going very well.” As for the pedestrianisation, he said: “I don’t think anything changed for us. Everything is the same for us. And I think it looks better than before because it wasn’t clear where the pedestrian is, where people are going to walk from. But now everything is clear and looks nicer than before. Yeah, we love it.”

5. Rubicon

At Rubicon cafe, the manager said: “The students are important to us and they were off I think for like three weeks or something. That's why we were a little bit quieter than usual [over Christmas]. But it has been good, very well, yeah. And we have lots of regular customers as well. The business was not affected over Christmas, but we celebrated here with our regular customers. Everything was perfect and still going very well.” As for the pedestrianisation, he said: “I don’t think anything changed for us. Everything is the same for us. And I think it looks better than before because it wasn’t clear where the pedestrian is, where people are going to walk from. But now everything is clear and looks nicer than before. Yeah, we love it.”

At Cotham Antiques, Susan Miller, the owner, said: “The road of course wasn’t finished until the week before Christmas so I think that did have an impact. I mean, it’s been very disruptive and it also looked pretty unattractive. So we only really had that last week. So you can’t say what impact the pedestrianisation had, we only really know the impact that the disruption had. Having said that, it was about the same as last year. So, yes, we were reasonably pleased.”

6. Cotham Antiques

At Cotham Antiques, Susan Miller, the owner, said: “The road of course wasn’t finished until the week before Christmas so I think that did have an impact. I mean, it’s been very disruptive and it also looked pretty unattractive. So we only really had that last week. So you can’t say what impact the pedestrianisation had, we only really know the impact that the disruption had. Having said that, it was about the same as last year. So, yes, we were reasonably pleased.”

At Coffee + Beer, they have a small team of four people. Vicky, one of the full-time baristas who had been working in the cafe since September, said the pedestrianisation seemed to have “a really positive impact”. “For the most part, everyone seems to be happy with the pedestrianisation. I think it’s really nice, I think it's much nicer with all the outside seating.” As for Christmas, she said: “It was really good, there were definitely lots of people wanting to support local shops, which is really nice.”

7. Coffee + Beer

At Coffee + Beer, they have a small team of four people. Vicky, one of the full-time baristas who had been working in the cafe since September, said the pedestrianisation seemed to have “a really positive impact”. “For the most part, everyone seems to be happy with the pedestrianisation. I think it’s really nice, I think it's much nicer with all the outside seating.” As for Christmas, she said: “It was really good, there were definitely lots of people wanting to support local shops, which is really nice.”

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