Fact 201: BARBER CLEANS UP WITH SHOP IN OLD LOO
2006 - Roberto Sanfilippo has finally realised his dream of opening a barber shop, after taking over a disused old toilet block. Aptly named The Gents, Roberto's salon opened yesterday on the Wells Road in Totterdown after months of renovations to the building. It was a snip at a mere £36,000 all in, which Roberto funded with the help of his father Vince, who is also a barber. The pair bought the building in May last year, at an auction at Bristol Golf Club in Almondsbury.
Roberto, 27, of Camden Road, Southville, has now transformed the former loo into a 'men-only' barber's. And he says business is looking good, after cutting 12 people's hair yesterday morning alone. Roberto, who works on his own in The Gents, said: 'It has been very busy so far. 'People love the shop and have been following its progress since I bought it. They have seen it go from a public toilet to a to a barber's shop and have spread the word around the area.
'Some people cannot believe that a year ago this was a public toilet. 'We've had customers come in and say the last time they were here was to go to the toilet. 'There is a studio flat on top. When I bought the building, I applied to turn it into a flat and a shop. The cost of the building work has been about £30,000 but kitting it out added about £6,000. 'A building firm did most of the work and my dad and I kitted it out.
'It is just me in the shop to begin with because I have just started out. 'It is hard to tell how busy I will be and I hope to get a second person in eventually.' Roberto says the flat is not quite finished yet but when it is he plans to rent it out to help pay his mortgage. He added: 'The planning took about eight months and then the building work started and the whole project took just over a year from when I bought it. 'I'm really happy and could not have asked for it to go any better. Now it's a case of fingers crossed that the business takes off.' Vince and Roberto had to compete with four bidders during the auction last spring.
After the sale there was a round of applause from onlookers who enjoyed watching the bidding going back and forth. Roberto had long dreamt of running his own place, but Bristol's sky-high property prices had always stopped him from making a start. The guide price for the toilet, which was auctioned by Anna Maggs, was £25,000, and the father and son had set themselves a £40,000 limit. At the time, Ms Maggs said: 'I am sure I will go down in history for selling it. 'When people saw the £25,000 guide price, they could not believe what it was going for. '
Fact 202: WHEN THE BEACH SPRANG INTO LIFE
In Victorian times, Severn Beach was just the lonely haunt of fishermen, or of boatmen plying up and down the river, but all that was to change with the coming of the railway. In 1922, after the 'Beach' had got its own station, bungalows and houses started going up and the area adjacent to the river was developed into a 'resort', with amusements and cafes. Come the 1930s and the fashion for 'getting outdoors', Severn Beach became something of an attraction for Bristolians, who could easily catch the train there from Temple Meads.
Hundreds more would cycle there and a few even went by car or motorcycle. This 'Blackpool of the West' attracted hordes of people. They came for the day, the weekend, or even for a whole week's holiday in one of the many chalets that had been built in the fields.
It wasn't long before a hotel went up, catering for functions and more well-heeled visitors. With its own swimming pool (the Blue Lagoon), fairground rides, miniature railway, tennis courts, boating pool, cafes and other amusements, Severn Beach became very popular.
With many people out of work, and money in short supply, it provided a cheap day out. The changing nature of transport and the advent of continental holidays in the 1960s meant that Severn Beach fell out of popularity. It became run-down and eventually something of a joke. Now, with new housing and changes to the sea defences, there is nothing left of the 'old' Severn Beach. Even the huge pub, The Severn Salmon, built in 1936 and run for so many years by the well-known Sellick family, has gone. Severn Beach Local History Group, have gathered together some wonderful photos for their book Around Severn Beach. It's still available and is published by Tempus.
It had a twin, the White Lodge, a little further down the hill and long since demolished. Both fronted the extensive orchards and vegetable gardens of Young's 'Great House', a mansion built on the site of what had once been a medieval Carmelite monastery.
The merchant died in 1589 - just before the Red Lodge was completed - and his son Robert, a foolish young man, wasted the family fortunes and was soon bankrupt. The lodge became an independant dwelling in 1595. The 'Great House' - which had also been home to Colston's School before the move to Stapleton - was demolished in the 1863 to build the Colston Hall, but the Red Lodge survived and had many eminent residents, including the great physician James Cowles Pritchard.
Pritchard, whose famous book The Natural History of Man foreshadowed the work of naturalist Charles Darwin, lived here between 1827 and 1845. In 1854 the lodge, run by social reformer Mary Carpenter with financial help from Lady Byron, became home to the first girls' reformatory school in the whole country. Mary, born in Exeter in 1807, was the eldest child of Lant Carpenter - later to become a well-known Unitarian minister in charge of Lewin's Mead Meeting House.
In 1833, when she was 25, Mary met and became a great admirer of the Indian social reformer and scholar Rajah Rammohun Roy, and it was he who inspired her to action. After founding a free school at Lewin's Mead in 1846 and Kingswood Industrial School in 1852, she started campaigning for the rights of children and women, who often ended up in prison for stealing to feed their families. A much-loved woman, Mary died in 1877.
When the reformatory closed in 1919, many feared for the future of the wonderful panelling and ceilings. But an appeal, headed by Alderman James Fuller Eberle and Sir George Wills, of the tobacco family, raised enough money to buy the property for the city. Money would come in from the Bristol Savages - that motley collection of artists and entertainers with whom James Eberle was connected - who were given a 28-year lease. A condition of the lease was that the public be admitted one day a month.
But the Red Lodge was in a bad state, and a lot of restoration work had to be carried out. In the 1920s a large room was constructed in part of the garden - it's still there today - a more suitable 'Wigwam' home for the Savages. The Wigwam's treasures include two ancient chimney pieces, one dated 1682 and salvaged from the Goat In Armour Inn and the other saved from the house of Richard Stubbs, a St Michael's wine merchant. In 1948, when the lodge became part of Bristol Museum, even more restoration work was found to be necessary. Then, following a visit by Princess Margaret, it was, in 1951, fully opened to the public.
Rooms had been added around the stair turret in the 17th century, but these were altered again in an extensive updating between 1720 and 1730. According to the architectural historian Pevsner, gables were replaced by 'hipped roofs with eaves cornice, long sash windows installed, and the north side remodelled around a new staircase' which has 'three twisted balusters per tread and Ionic column newels'. The Oak Room contains a fireplace saved from Ashley Manor and panelling saved from the old St Michael's rectory nearby.
But the tour de force, according to Pevsner, is the first floor chamber called the Great Oak Room. Almost unaltered, it is among the most elaborate English interiors of its date. Dominating the room is a real treasure - the only major Bristol carved chimney piece still in situ. Very big and high, of richly carved limestone, its alabaster panels depict Young's coat of arms and panels of hope, faith, justice and prudence.
The Red Lodge might be famed for its old oak panelling and furniture, fine plasterwork ceilings and carved chimney pieces, but if you're visiting on Doors Open Day - Saturday, September 9 - don't overlook the Elizabethan Knot Garden, planted up with dwarf box and herbs and now looking superb.
Fact 204: A NEW LEASE OF LIFE
2006 - Magnificent Palladian-style Kingsweston House - open to the public as part of Doors Open Day on Sunday, September 10 - is nearly 300 years old. Designed by Sir John Vanbrugh for Edward Southwell in about 1710, it's probably the architect's best-preserved medium-sized house. We take a look at its changing fortunes Revived: The grand Kingsweston House, which sadly fell into decline and decay after a rich history, but was brought back to life in the new Millennium THE manor of Kings- weston, once part of the vast Berkeley estates, was granted to the Bristol merchant Robert Fitzharding by King Henry II.
In 1570, Sir William Berkeley decided to sell it off and the estate changed hands several times until, in 1679, it was bought by Sir Robert Southwell. Born in Ireland in 1635, Sir Robert was, at the tender age of 29, appointed Clerk Of The Privy Council by King Charles II.
He travelled extensively as the King's Envoy (helping to negotiate peace between Spain and Portugal), but retired from public life in 1679 - the same year that he bought Kingsweston House. But in 1688, when the Catholic King James II lost his throne in favour of the Protestants William and Mary, Sir Robert returned to public life to become Secretary Of State for Ireland.
The new king actually spent a night with Sir Robert at Kingsweston, having landed from Ireland at the Lamplighters near Shirehampton. After Sir Robert had died in 1702, aged 66, his eldest son, Edward, high in favour like his father, also became Secretary Of State for Ireland. His son, also called Edward (1705-1755) became an MP for Bristol from 1739 to 1754. His son, again called Edward, became an MP and, in 1776, the 20th Baron de Clifford. It was he who employed Robert Mylne to design the stables and Shirehampton Lodge, now the entrance to Shirehampton Golf Club. Mylne was also responsible for redecoration and improvements to the principal rooms in the house.
At this time, a two-storey extension was built at the rear, including kitchens and the present entrance to the north of the building. This extension - which covered most of the present car park - was demolished in 1968. When the Baron died in 1777, the estate passed to his 10-year-old son - yes, you've guessed it, another Edward. After the Enclosure Laws of 1812, he decided to buy the marshland which then stretched from the house towards Avonmouth. Then, in 1833, a year after his death, the house was sold to Philip Miles for £210,000.
Miles - who was MP for Bristol from 1835 until 1837 - had already bought Leigh Court estate and had the mansion we see today built there. After the death of his first wife, he married again, and the eldest son from this second family, Philip William Skynner Miles, inherited Kingsweston. When old man Miles died in 1845, his estate was worth more than a million pounds, making him Bristol's first recorded millionaire.
Philip William Skynner Miles, the master of Kingweston, helped finance the building of the docks at Avonmouth on his land, thus bringing much work and prosperity to the region. As things turned out, his son, Philip Napier Miles, was to be the final squire. Philip was a gifted musician and composer, and many young musicians were entertained at the house, including a young Malcolm Sargent.
During the First World War, Kingweston was converted into a hospital for the wounded. Then, in July 1935, Philip died suddenly, aged 70, leaving no heir. Kingsweston House was auctioned off to pay the £9,800 death duties, and the squire's widow had a smaller house built in the gardens. Bristol Municipal Charities then bought the mansion, which was about to undergo many changes of fortune. But with the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, Kingsweston was once again occupied by the military.
Once peace returned, it is was leased to Bristol Education Committee for use as a school, prior to the completion of the Lawrence Weston estate. After being sold to Bristol College Of Science And Technology, it then became Bath University's School Of Architecture. Then, in 1970, Bristol Corporation, with the help of a grant from the Home Office, bought the house for £305,000 for a Police Training Centre. After Avon and Somerset Constabulary had moved to its new premises in Portishead in 1995, the building's future looked ominous.
Boarded up to deter vandalism, the beautiful Georgian House started to decay. But the new Millennium brought with it a new lease of life - the house, gatehouse and five acres of grounds were privately acquired and have now become a favourite events venue. Kingsweston House will be open to the public on Sunday, September 10, from 10am to 4pm.
