Standing up for Stapleton Road

Make Sunday Special comes to Stapleton Road in Easton on Sunday and for traders and the community it is a chance to showcase the road and shake off its reputation.

Photographs by Dave Betts

Stapleton Road is the heart of a bustling east Bristol community and a beacon of independent shopping.

You can buy almost anything here and there is not a Tesco Metro in sight. From oysters and lobsters at the fishmongers, baguettes and croissants at a French patisserie, greengrocers selling everything from apples to sugar cane, butchers, haberdasheries and beauty shops, Stapleton Road is one of the longest independent shopping streets in the city.

Stapleton Road has always been a shopping destination and, back in the 1950s, it attracted shoppers from Wales and the West Country who came to visit the likes of Jones department store.

Stapleton Road was once a shopping destination for visitors from across South Wales and the West Country (Photo: Bristol Record Office 43207-9-15-003)

Some of Bristol’s longest established shops are still based here.

Tovey’s Fishmongers started in 1935 on Easton Road and in 1961 moved round the corner to Stapleton Road.

Kevin Tovey is the latest generation to take over the shop and says the road has had its ups and downs.

“A few years ago there were problems with gangs and prostitutes but that has pretty much gone now,” Kevin said.

Now, like many traders across Bristol, his biggest gripe is parking restrictions in the area which he believes are driving customers to the supermarkets.

While Stapleton Road may have some of the more established shops in Bristol it is also a hub of new entrepreneurial activity.

Shops tend not to stay empty for long and immigrants are especially keen to make the most of the opportunity to set up their own businesses.

Somali baker Rashid Ali owns Au Rendez Vous des Pains. He trained in France and makes all his baguettes and patisserie on the premises from scratch every morning.

“It’s good having a business here,” says Rashid. “The people here know what they like and they appreciate a proper French bakery.”

Sonny Richards, chair of the Stapleton Road Traders Association, said Stapleton Road deserves to be supported more: “I’ve told Bristol City Council that the street will not be ghettoised and I see no reason why Stapleton Road cannot be like Gloucester Road or anywhere else.”

Sonny Richards (Stapleton Road Traders Association), Pat Usherwood (Stapleton Road Working Group) and resident Mike Pickering (Photo:Bristol City Council)

“There are a lot of issues but a group of us are fighting to get this road changed. We will not give up and we will be there with a stick trying to get things changed and done properly.”

There is no denying that the road has had its problems.

Someone who has seen the best and the worst of times is 67-year-old Mike Pickering who was born just off Stapleton Road and has lived in Easton all his life.

“In the late 1990s people would ring up wanting to know if it was safe to come to Stapleton Road,” he said.

“It was an impression from what they had read and it wasn’t like that,” he adds.

However, following a series of stabbing and shooting incidents a 2011 headline about Stapleton Road had a devastating effect on the community. Its repercussions are still being felt to this day.

“Once that was written it has been impossible to shift,” said Pickering. “It was never as bad as that. Us in the area we knew it wasn’t as bad as that.”

“The tag was very, very unfair,” says Steve Woods who set up Tidy BS5, a grassroots group dedicated to helping clean up the area.

“I’ve lived here for nearly 40 years and I’ve found some of the posher parts of Bristol to be more threatening than here.”

However, the community came together and has worked tirelessly ever since to turn round the reputation of the road.

Being chosen as a Make Sundays Special location is a recognition of their work.

Stapleton Road Working Group chair Pat Usherwood said anything which will help “bring people into the area so they can see it for themselves is a good thing”.

While many people on the road may never been to a Make Sunday Special before they are enthusiastic about the idea.

“I’ve never heard of it before,” says Ahad Kabar, who was shopping with friends. “It sounds good and it might help bring people together – it sounds fun.”

Abad Malick is setting out a dazzling display of fruit and vegetables outside his shop and is equally excited: “I remember when we used to have street parties here. It will bring all the different communities together – it is a great idea and definitely really good.”

Emma Harvey is from Trinity Community Arts and, along with Up Our Street and Stapleton Road Working Group, is helping to coordinate the first Make Sunday Special on Stapleton Road.

Stacy Yelland (L) Up Our Street and Emma Harvey (R) Trinity Community Arts

“A lot of the activities which go on in the city centre are great but a lot of people don’t make their way into the city centre on a Sunday…so bringing it out into the community will help them get involved and also the event can be a bit more reflective of inner city Bristol and the communities which are based here,” she says.

Becky Ghilotti and Hannah Pepper have helped to create the Easton Community Garden on a verge running alongside Stapleton Road. They are in no doubt that the road has much to offer and the Make Sunday Special event will help the rest of Bristol realise it.

Hannah Pepper (L) and Becky Ghilotti (R) of the Easton Community Garden

“It’s friendly, with great shops and just 10 minute walk to the city centre,” says Becky.

“We may lack the disposable income of Gloucester Road and some of the trinket shops because we have a different demographic, but you can get everything you need on the road and it’s not cliquey community.

Hannah agrees: “I’ve lived here for eight years and I love Easton – it belongs to everyone.”

Make Sunday Special
City centre events: On the first Sunday of the month in and around Corn Street in the Old City.
June 7
July 5
August 2
September 6

Neighbourhood events:
Avonmouth – September 13
Bedminster – June 14
Easton and Lawrence Hill – August 23
Hartcliffe – September 6

This article was first published in May 2015