The term ‘High Street’ has many connotations; most people might think of their local high street, or their nearest stretch of mainstream shopping. However, if you step away from the centre and the clone like shops there are many high streets that you may not have explored. Bristol is a city with many lay-ers of diversity, an obvious starting point to help take a journey away from the mainstream. Should we have concen-trated on the main shopping centre of Bristol, our outcomes and research would have been quite self-explanatory. A journey through the mundane. People get stuck in a lapse in the giant Cabot Circus, a routine develops and you find yourself taking the same route through a city day in and day out. And why not? Some might argue all their conveniences lie within the centre of town, they can just rush through only stopping for what they need.

For this reason, our publication is stepping away from the norm. We wanted an area which could open up a discussion and opinions, home to in-teresting characters within an area of character - an area that does perhaps become overshadowed by the bright lights of Cabot Circus.

We decided to focus on the Stokes Croft area; an edgy suburb of Bristol. Upon visiting Stokes Croft, the sheer scale of graffiti, which covers the walls and buildings, immediately catches your eye - most definitely works of art, which have obviously had much thought put into them. They range in scale, from huge drawings covering the sides of buildings to tiny hidden pieces peeking from be-hind dustbins or filling empty arch ways, giving run down areas new lease of life.This is a huge juxtaposition between the near by squeaky clean walls of Cabot Circus and it works - why leave ugly buildings to disintegrate before your eyes when they can become a canvas. The whole street is a canvas.*P

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It is not only the two areas that lie in juxtaposition - when walking down the high street of Stokes Croft you realise the shops juxtapose one another too; there are no chain shops on the high street, instead it is filled by little artist cafes with open plan layouts, no two match-ing. Next to these cafés are dingy corner shops and ‘massage parlours’ and I’d be surprised if you would find this diversity in many of the other popular high streets in Bristol. Stokes Croft is also home to many small independent shops full of quirky and vin-tage clothing with charity shops dotted amongst them to catch your eye and lure you in - a unique shopping experience all round.

There are many huge derelict buildings, boarded up and over grown with weeds, they thrive on their character and show history of the area. The old tatty build-ings, which tower over Stokes Croft are bursting with colour, engulfed by more works of art, which bring them into the modern day. In all, the area may be con-sidered by some to be a little run down, but perhaps this just adds to its charm and distinction.

There are some interesting characters inhabiting the streets of Stokes Croft who help build a colourful picture. On speak-ing to the locals and the visitors you get a strong feeling of the pride they have for their area and the largest stretch of independent shops in the country which spread out along the neighbour-ing Gloucester Road; many would shop nowhere else:

‘93% say no to Tesco’ is the statement that spreads across a wall at the the tip of the high street - stickers are dotted around ‘say no to Tesco’. Researching the history of Stokes Croft uncovers the battle that the locals undertook to prevent this megastore entering their society, on speaking to them now we discover this is still a painful issue with so many feeling so strongly about their rights to remain independent and if any good has come out of the opening of Tesco it is that it seems to have made the inhabitants of Stokes Croft ever more determined to support their local businesses and we too hope that Stokes Croft continues to defend its right to remain relatively untouched by the super powers of industry.

The changing face of Stokes Croft 1950’s Nine Tree Hill Stokes Croft

Stokes Croft is an area of central Bristol; a subculture separate from the mainstream

hustles and bustles of Cabot Circus.

High streets are becoming more and more regulated following a pattern of familiar chain

stores and mass production.

Here we are taking a step away to explore an area where materialism moves aside to

make way for an intricate web of diverse independent shops, cafes and social

culture.

When people are removed from an area saturated with advertisement and the

glaring lights of megastores they are given a unique chance to break away from the

common routine and appreciate the smaller aesthetics of an area that my otherwise have

remained unnoticed.