---- Going with the theme of lockdown reports from the archives! ----
St Mary le Port Church
One of central Bristol's most popular parks, Castle Park, actually boasts two old churches. The one that any local will recognise is St Peter's Church. This sits virtually bang in the middle of the park and is often seen surrounded by skateboarders and parkour practitioners alike. This is out of bounds to the public, as it is unsafe.
One thing these churches have in common is that they were both bombed during the Second World War. St Peter's Church faired much better than St Mary le Port however, as all that is left standing of the latter is the grade II listed tower. This tower sits on the west side of the park, and is surrounded by two abandoned buildings! You couldn't make it up eh? One is a former Norwich Union building and the other is the old Bank of England, both of which have been closed for a long time. The Bank of England building is attached to a live Lloyds bank office so is fairly well looked after. The NU building sits dilapidated and neglected, having been the target for a fair few fires and break ins. In front of the NU building is an obelisk which leads to an underground cellar - see here.
The church tower in the background, with the Norwich Union building in front:
Barely visible from the road, the church tower is still standing. It's fenced off from the park, and has seen its fair share of squatters both around it and inside it. It's a sorry state of affairs around here, but it's one positive that it is still standing full stop. It's a real part of history this, which is why it was rather nice to get to see the inside and indeed the top of it.
With the help of @tallginge, we used the drainpipe left inside the tower to rope up. Being a total noob at this I really owe him for setting this up and making it possible. There was some rope going into the tower at the bottom which suggests that others have done a similar thing in the past, although I've never seen any photos of it happening. @WhoDaresWins decided to stay at the bottom, and whilst we were up there he headed to the roof of the Norwich Union building to get some snaps of us from there. Feel free to add some here if you have them to hand dude.
Going up...
(these were taken on the phone so quality isn't great)
And on top...
CUE 8MM (was in that phase of my life) (editing isn't great but couldn't be arsed to redo them)
@tallginge
Trusty hoodie doing me well here
Sadly all didn't quite go to plan. After a successful descent under the watchful eye of Ginge, I decided to try and make my own way up onto the window ledge to climb back out. As I neared the ledge, I took the hand of WDW who was waiting to pull me up. I hadn't realised my hand was so sweaty, and due to this I ended up losing his grip and falling to the ground head first as my foot was still stuck in a ledge on the wall. Thankfully I managed to get my hand down first so that was the point of contact with the ground, not my head, but it still made for a rather mangled hand which took a good few months to recover!
What I landed on - with Ginge hastily packing up the equipment:
Anyway, thanks to the efforts of the others and all their strength I was out of the window and over the fence. Cheers guys - you really helped out a moronic friend there
St Mary le Port Church
One of central Bristol's most popular parks, Castle Park, actually boasts two old churches. The one that any local will recognise is St Peter's Church. This sits virtually bang in the middle of the park and is often seen surrounded by skateboarders and parkour practitioners alike. This is out of bounds to the public, as it is unsafe.
One thing these churches have in common is that they were both bombed during the Second World War. St Peter's Church faired much better than St Mary le Port however, as all that is left standing of the latter is the grade II listed tower. This tower sits on the west side of the park, and is surrounded by two abandoned buildings! You couldn't make it up eh? One is a former Norwich Union building and the other is the old Bank of England, both of which have been closed for a long time. The Bank of England building is attached to a live Lloyds bank office so is fairly well looked after. The NU building sits dilapidated and neglected, having been the target for a fair few fires and break ins. In front of the NU building is an obelisk which leads to an underground cellar - see here.
The church tower in the background, with the Norwich Union building in front:
Barely visible from the road, the church tower is still standing. It's fenced off from the park, and has seen its fair share of squatters both around it and inside it. It's a sorry state of affairs around here, but it's one positive that it is still standing full stop. It's a real part of history this, which is why it was rather nice to get to see the inside and indeed the top of it.
With the help of @tallginge, we used the drainpipe left inside the tower to rope up. Being a total noob at this I really owe him for setting this up and making it possible. There was some rope going into the tower at the bottom which suggests that others have done a similar thing in the past, although I've never seen any photos of it happening. @WhoDaresWins decided to stay at the bottom, and whilst we were up there he headed to the roof of the Norwich Union building to get some snaps of us from there. Feel free to add some here if you have them to hand dude.
Going up...
(these were taken on the phone so quality isn't great)
And on top...
CUE 8MM (was in that phase of my life) (editing isn't great but couldn't be arsed to redo them)
@tallginge
Trusty hoodie doing me well here
Sadly all didn't quite go to plan. After a successful descent under the watchful eye of Ginge, I decided to try and make my own way up onto the window ledge to climb back out. As I neared the ledge, I took the hand of WDW who was waiting to pull me up. I hadn't realised my hand was so sweaty, and due to this I ended up losing his grip and falling to the ground head first as my foot was still stuck in a ledge on the wall. Thankfully I managed to get my hand down first so that was the point of contact with the ground, not my head, but it still made for a rather mangled hand which took a good few months to recover!
What I landed on - with Ginge hastily packing up the equipment:
Anyway, thanks to the efforts of the others and all their strength I was out of the window and over the fence. Cheers guys - you really helped out a moronic friend there
