Bring on the Downs

When I moved to Bristol twelve years ago, I was immediately impressed that someone had the good sense to leave a huge, open, green space in the middle of the city.

The Downs - covering 400 acres and protected from development by an 1861 Act of Parliament - remains one of Bristol's greatest, though understated, treasures.

 

 

In an earlier age, the area was used for sheep grazing, lead mining and quarrying. In the spring, Durdham Down was also used for horse racing - think Epsom before they built a grandstand.

 

 

A century and a half later, the presence of The Downs raises two interesting questions about our own approach to the built environment and civic life more generally.

 

 

Firstly, how much urbanisation do we think is acceptable in a city? The concern in the 1860s, when Bristol had a population of about 150,000, was that new houses were in danger of encroaching unchecked onto the open space as the city expanded. One wonders what the city fathers who oversaw the creation of The Downs would have made of our current approaches to urban development.

 

 

The second question is, when was the last time we saw the fabulously wealthy giving away prime real estate to the public, no strings attached? The fact that such a question raises snorts of derision illustrates how far away we are from the mindset of the Society of Merchant Venturers when they gave away Clifton Down to the city for public use. Today, if such an act were to take place, I imagine it would be on a vastly smaller scale and would be accompanied by a powerful PR campaign in order to moneterize the experience.

 

 

Am I being cynical? Perhaps I need to go and fly a kite on The Downs and regain a sense of perspective.

Al Shaw

 

Al Shaw is a freelance writer and runs the Kumon maths and English study centre in Redland

 

 
Posted by: Al Shaw on 14 April 2009