What next for the Bearpit?

In the underpass from the Bearpit to Debenhams, there is a message from the Bearpit Improvement Group placed behind a perspex sheet, presumably to avoid vandalism. It thanks all the customers who have shopped at the market stalls – introduced four years ago now – for it is those people who have “kept us going” all this time.

The rest of the message, warning about more disruptions due to improvement work, is obscured by some mindless graffiti tagging; a demonstration of the sorts of the challenges faced by the handful of people working in this neglected little roundabout which somehow manages to be both a vital thoroughfare and a place to avoid – depending on the time of day.

For four long years now, intrepid traders have been braving the elements and abuse in their shipping container shops in the name of turning around the fortunes of this island of chaos.

And while it’s true that now you can pick up some fresh fruit and veg and one of the best takeaway coffees in town right here, the same old problems with anti-social behaviour and street drinking remain. And it still smells a bit of piss in places.

But there is no doubt that what started out as a hopeful community regeneration project has turned a genuine corner. And as BBC Radio Bristol prepares to broadcast its flagship breakfast show live from the Bearpit on Wednesday morning, there are signs of an even brighter future ahead.

Meeting in local churches, hotel bars and the People’s Republic of Stokes Croft, like-minded locals shared a table to bang their heads together about tackling what had become one of the city’s sad no-go areas as the Bearpit Improvement Group was founded some five years ago.

It wasn’t too long before they got the council on board, securing political backing and financial support for what became a rare, bottom-up, community project to regenerate a very public space that was once the site of a grand shopping arcade prior to the arrival of the Luftwaffe.

The traders came first, setting up basic stalls on the cracked paving. Grants and investment saw shipping containers follow, before these were eventually overshadowed by the arrival of a vintage double-decker bus which now houses Mexican diner Bearritos.

A long, drawn-out and repeatedly delayed £1 million construction project was then started by the council, creating more open space, repaving, and building in new walkways around the edges as well as steps into the centre for those who want to avoid the underpass tunnels and what lurks inside them.

“So that was the first phase, the construction phase,” explains Miriam Delogu, owner of Bearpit Social cafe and board member at the Bearpit Improvement Group.

“What that did is get the Bearpit ready for it’s second phase. It got the right facilities and power down here, and opened up the space. It’s made it feel safer. It might not always be the case, but at least it feels like it.”

The next phase, Miriam says, is bringing more events to the Bearpit – like the recent Bearpit Banquet sit-down evening meal held in September as part of the Bristol Biennial art festival.

“We want to see more activities, more markets, then we can also start engaging with different organisations to come and use the space and let the city know that the space is open. We want things to happen and we know the public do too,” Miriam adds.

That’s not to say it’s all roses in the Bearpit. Miriam’s working life here hit its nadir in November last year. In a heartfelt blog, she described being “paralysed with anxiety” due to constantly witnessing “the abuse, the violence (and) the vulgarity” of the Bearpit.

“The everyday sexim, racism, homophobia, emotional abuse, physical abuse, men being followed into the toilets by several women to exchange drugs for sexual favours – the things we witness on a daily basis is baffling,” she wrote.

Although she agonised over it at first, she said the blog has actually helped the battle to restore calm. “The result of the blog is we have a much better working relationship with the council and the police. When there’s a problem no we know how to tackle it.”

She adds: “The biggest challenge is still public behaviour, though. A lot of people think the Bearpit is plagued with homelessness but that’s not necessarily the case.

“I think we are in an area where you do have drug and alcohol abuse issues – but it’s just trying to make people understand this is also just an open, public space for everyone.”

Robin Halpenny, owner of Bearritos, sits at one of the tables at the top of his double decker bus-cum-diner.

Looking down at a group of street drinkers gathered under a tree, he says he sees how anti-social behaviour still puts people off from stopping in the Bearpit instead of just walking through.

But, he adds: “Anti-social behaviour has always been here and I think people like us at first thought that trading would make it simply go away. Now we see the goal is simply more activity, filling the space with more events and more positiveness and that’s where we want to take it next.”

He believes that the direction of the Bearpit will be defined by the community – as it has been since the regeneration plans were first laid out.

“The problem is there’s no template for the council or authorities for relinquishing control to a community group and letting redevelopment happening in a smart, bottom-up way.

“There were times – what with the delays and dragging generators through the mud into the cold – that the council made it very difficult.

“But when you look at the investment coming through and changing the whole way the Bearpit looks and works, it has made a remarkable difference on the way people behave and use the space.”

Chris Chalkley, from the People’s Republic of Stokes Croft, agrees, saying that the space has been transformed and redefined by the improvements – adding his own philosophical twist.

“The most significant thing is the Bearpit’s symbolism. The idea that people can come and engage in public space that allows greater freedom than is traditionally allowed.”

He points out not just the physical changes to the infrastructure, but also the public art; the giant black and white bear sculpture built from reclaimed wood, and the messages regularly sprawled across challenging ideas about power, corporations and sustainability – all right next to the city’s bustling commercial shopping hub of Broadmead and Cabot Circus.

“Right here is a debate about the issues that confront us – local power versus corporate power,” says Chalkley, who has turned down big money offers for advertising in the Bearpit.

And then there’s his pet project: the “urban Minack”, as he calls it – a shipping container due to house an art gallery and theatre. Funded by a Bristol 2015 Green Capital grant, the project is close to completion and will be the icing on the cake for the south-west corner of the Bearpit, hosting regular art exhibitions which will spill out onto the public walkways.

To see if enticing more people in here is genuinely changing attitudes, Bristol24/7 conducted the most basic of vox pops (see video below); asking passers-by to describe the space in one word. Answers ranged from “groovy” to “improved”. Which is a good sign, we think.

Over in the fruit and veg shop one customer expands a little, suggesting the Bearpit has changed, but still has a little way to go. “I’ve been coming through here for 12 years,” says Emma Dibben, 35, an illustrator from Bedminster.

“The landscaping has changed it a lot. I’d like to say there’s less drink and drugs, but I’m not sure that’s right. I mean, I come here passingly, but I’m not sure it’s somewhere I’ve ever wanted to hang out and it’s probably still not. I wouldn’t arrange to meet people here, put it that way.”

“You should see it on Wednesdays,” the shop assistant butts in, before holding his ears to drown out an ambulance siren. “There are lots of food stalls and it’s one of the most open and friendly places in the city.”

Read more: What is really happening to St Paul’s Carnival?