There’s something special about a city in the early morning, especially when the sun is shining. At one time I thought this applied only to far-off places like Prague, Paris, or Budapest, but yesterday’s early arrival at Bristol Crown Court (for jury service) reminded me that beauty and interest can be found close to home. The streets that now double as Bristol clubland bore no traces of recent nightlife and although they would soon fill up again with the dust and din of daytime, I saw them in pristine clarity, blessed only with the aroma of coffee fresh enough to make me feel like a tourist in any European city (which, of course, I actually was). With an hour to spare, I also took the chance to look afresh at the variety of buildings in this corner of a hotch-potch city, torn down and built up so many times around its small but discernible heart.
I’m ashamed to say that although I must have walked down Small Street before, I had never even noticed the neo-Gothic Guild Hall which is right oppopsite the courts, and in the more famous Corn Street (where I recently gave visiting family a very cursory guided tour!) had failed to really differentiate its variety of copulas and cornices.
I was sorry not to have a camera on me, but came home to raid Flickr with some success. Thanks to those generous souls (gomem, Floyd Nello and Joe Dunckley) who took these and gave them the right kind of Creative Commons licence. Also this is the first time I have used the WordPress slideshow feature. Not bad!
Ali Bacon, Author 
I always stay at the hotel next to St Mary Redcliffe when I visit Bristol and I love to go walking early in the morning before the city wakes. The architecture is stunning.
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Glad you are also a Bristol lover. I am seeing something new every day.
AliB
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