BRISTOL BYZANTINE: the unusually Moorish and Venetian-flavoured Victorian industrial architecture

[@greenbank234]

These are wonderful videos. I've lived in Bristol for 40 years and know all these places, but this added a new perspective. Commentary so knowledgeable but laugh out loud funny sometimes. Great stuff! Cheers!

[@zeeestg]

Criminally under-watched channel. So informative, well researched and well presented. I'm going to find you some more subscribers.

[@HashmogJannor]

I was part of the vibrant Bristol music scene !979~1982 and 'The Granary' was a much loved live venue. On a completely different topic, I would be very interested in what happened to some of the other venues of that era. The ones I remember are 'The Stonehouse' [at the city end of the M32], 'Docklands Settlement' (?) [St.Paul's], 'Tiffany's' [near The Downs], 'The Green Rooms' [entrances in King St./Prince St.],'Trinity Hall' [Old Market] and The Crystal Theatre's Warehouse [between Victoria & Temple Streets]. There was also a basement in St.Nicholas' Market and 'Carwardines' in a building at the top of Park St. that had live music. Best wishes and thank you for an excellent channel.

[@marcinkowaewa]

I'm new to Bristol. I haven't finished watching your video yet, but I already cannot unsee these details on the streets. Thank you for sharing your knowledge!

[@PedestrianDiversions]

I was new to Bristol myself just a few years ago so I'd never claim to be an expert! But lockdowns gave me plenty of opportunity to walk and observe the same small area....!

[@rafaelfuller3379]

That was increadibly informative, and well presented. I have always struggled to name the style of these buildings and classed them as a mingling of the gothic and romanesque revivals. I am currently working on a little Architectural history Project of my own, and found this video very inspiring. Thank you for the great content!

[@angusgregson9385]

This is excellent - thank you so much. Only regret it's taken me this long to find it.

[@MrJohnQCitizen]

Fantastic camera work

[@LarryKohn-o2p]

What a delight and so informative while being highly entertaining. I am using this as part of my preparation for going toThe Victorian Society of America summer school in London in a few weeks. Thank you. N. Meade

[@adam1983h]

Very impressive video. I've studied and worked in Bristol for 30 years but never understood the history of these buildings. I plan to watch all your videos now. I'm sure a walking tour would be really popular.

[@artemisbjj]

Great job on the vid, I love local Bristol history! I look forward to your next one.

[@owaindavies1489]

Amazing video, please keep them coming, fascinating to see more of Bristol's history. Great work!

[@Vigulfr]

Cheers for this informative and entertaining video. Lived in this city all my life and was vaguely aware of 'Bristol Byzantine' but learnt a lot from this video. Guess I'll have to go watch your other videos as well then.

[@keithreynolds]

Loving discovering all the channels videos. Watching as a family and sharing memories of Bristol, from tourism and student study days at Bower Ashton UWE. Thanks for the research and sensitivity.

[@PedestrianDiversions]

ha I swear like a sailor normally but I'm glad I decided to keep it to family friendly language on here. even when I want to be rude/scathing it actually feels like a non-swearing option can have more impact

[@keithreynolds]

@@PedestrianDiversions hi, filmmaker Peter Greenaway started out making Art pieces that were pastiche fake documentaries. Your droll commentary has a great level of sarcasm that we enjoy. Used to enjoy Jonathan Meades. KZbinr ‘Outlaw Bookseller’ does some science fiction infused psycho geography around Bristol. My children are over 18. One was a UWE student who lived above Lounge in North Street near the Old Tobacco factory and loves the architecture and culture of Bristol.

[@malcolmcoward7480]

Very informative and entertaining. So glad I happened upon your channel. Many thanks

[@hughtierneytierney3585]

Thank you very much. That was very interesting and nicely presented.

[@christymcdougall6135]

I literally had so much fun watching this! Your narration and editing is class 👌🏼 Thank you dude!

[@cliftonian10]

Great video. And an excellent first documentary! There are also in my view some other very modern examples of an attempt at Bristol Byzantine. See the Bristol and West, DAS and Nat West buildings around Temple Quay. I think it should be encouraged further in modern Bristol planning.

[@PedestrianDiversions]

modern pseudo-byzantine attempts could make another vid actually...

[@offgoingon]

Great video, hope to see more in the future!

[@bengriffiths442]

What an amazing video! Thank you for making it, it was really interesting and well put together.

[@simoncroft9792]

Excellent video. Great research. Old facade described as a “death mask” tho - some serious shade there! ( but accurate)

[@DaveKibble]

Great video - we really enjoyed it and felt informed and entertained - thanks.

[@thewinebottle]

Lovely. Really enjoyed the lack of music.

[@PedestrianDiversions]

Mostly due to laziness, but I spent most of my 20s stood in front of big speaker stacks and paid a price, in that I find it increasingly hard to hear dialogue/narration with background music, so I think it's generally for the best I just avoid that whole kettle of fish

[@Deepthought-42]

24:46 Ah The Granary! Many a drunken night spent there listening to the jazz of Acker Bilk and others in the 1970s and then struggling to find our way out of the city late at night through the many diversions of so called road improvements and housing developments.

[@kennethmaney914]

Love the vid carry on my boy

[@ModelHeroes]

I would like to know whether the Bathurst Basin warehouse was influenced/influenced by the reflectively mismatched wings of Ashton Court... That was the first thing that came to mind for myself as you were showing us

[@l34nb4ck]

many times out and about in bristol (usualy drunk) i go to point out this architectural style to my fellow buddys and for the style name to just not be in my lexicon.. hopefuly after watching this it will stick. thanks alot for an enjoyable vid!

[@CharlieDraper]

Interesting survey of this motley assortment of buildings. If we discount the spurious early examples, I wonder whether this style can be linked to John Ruskin's 1851-3 "The Stones of Venice", which collected detailed architectural examples of Venetian architecture and argued for a revival of this style on various aesthetic, moral and intellectual grounds? (not limited to it being a major, Christian quasi-democratic thalassocracy...). This influenced buildings outside Bristol too (the Neo-Venetian page on Wikipedia gives some comparable buildings in New York and London among others, so I'd assume there are/were a lot more?). I see a tiny bit of the Palace of the Porphyrygenitus in some of these examples but agree they're not super Byzantine. Perhaps the argument was something to do with Venice controlling the swathes of land along the coast towards Turkey, and even Constantinople itself in 1204? More reading required... anyway, really enjoyed this!

[@Deepthought-42]

Thank you very much for highlighting the beauty of Bristols old buildings. Unfortunately Bristol’s town planners and developers have destroyed more of Bristol than Hitlers bombs of WW2. I hope Reece Winston’s books on old Bristol will provide inspiration for more videos. 👍

[@leightonolsson4846]

Bath stone is so ubiquitous in Bath as to be obligatory - even to classic 'between the wars' semi-detached houses - very incongruous looking they are too

[@peter_smyth]

33:26 Why can't you reproduce the 1870 image? surely that's in the public domain by now.

[@PedestrianDiversions]

Yeah you'd think but it said copyright... Turns out I'm an absolute idiot, the "1870s" caption refers to the construction of the buildings in the image, not the date of the image. There's a clearly 20th century building in the background. Sigh... ah well, beginner mistakes to be expected I suppose!

[@jonathanbee2093]

You'd love the Templeton Carpet Factory in Glasgow if you're ever visiting Scotland

[@PedestrianDiversions]

Good shout!

[@aussietom85]

The old museum in Brisbane, Australia has a similar style. It was built in 1891 and is described as Victorian sarcenic

[@elbapo7]

To me, I can see the byzantine (or eastern roman) influence on the alternating colour arch- alternating brick and stone was a feature of Eastern roman architecture - possibly as an anti earthquake feature due to the different flex in materials. But there are numerous examples which remind me of the examples here- St vitale in ravenna- or the church of the pantocrator in nesebar being the most clear to me. It is debatable how much this feature influenced moorish architecture- but there is definite influence on venetian and I suspect a lot of cross pollination anyway, given much of the Arab world was previously roman territory

[@origional_name_here1429]

Bath, most famously south-west of Bristol

[@fractalcat2121]

Gert lush

[@kennethmaney914]

It's in the french chateau style with a modern mansard roof

[@mattcannon2]

A reason why you'd build needlessly ornate commercial buildings is to instill trust - that is, to prove that you're not going anywhere. How do you differentiate the bloke who's going to rifle through all your goods vs the upstanding trustworthy warehouser? The one who has put more of themselves on the line (by building a fancier building) has more to lose if he starts stealing stuff. Similar logic follows for bank buildings on town high streets throughout the country.

[@EdwinWalkerProfile]

The term Bristol Byzantine is thrown around so often nowadays. It seems like it's the only architectural style that ever existed in Bristol. Even the St Mary le Port redevelopment website describes one of the terracotta-clad stepped buildings as "draw[ing] on the Bristol Byzantine and warehouse context of the Floating Harbour"???

[@PedestrianDiversions]

yeah I tried very hard to see the byzantine influence in that building, but it escapes me

[@kennethmaney914]

Bizz Zan Tyne. Ok thanks

[@Deepthought-42]

Fantastic video but I wish you had pronounced it buy zan tine 👍

[@williamwilliam5066]

We had great opportunities in terms of work, education, health, food and accommodation as "slaves" compared to our lives in Africa where life was nasty, brutish and short. Unfortunately we squandered these opportunities, mind you, our leaders who "sold" us, obviously profited a lot :(

[@Vigulfr]

Wow that's certainly a hot take.