Something about Bristol

[Spinxsta]

I've been to Bristol a couple of times to do tourist stuff in the past and have recently been a few times for work. There's something about it that gives me the heebie jeebies!

It's not like I feel unsafe or think it's grim but there's something my monkey brain doesn't like. It gives me a creeping sense of doom and I've never felt such relief to be on the M5.

I seen posts on here before about people getting squiffy at certain places. What's it all about? Any rational explanations?

I'm not woo but I'm starting to think it was the scene of my murder in a previous life!!

SIL used to live there, and I always hated visiting her. They had a lovely house over the road from a park in Fishponds, but it left me cold. I do think a lot of it is that traffic though, it really is a shit hole to drive in and out of. I always do a WHOOP when out on the M5 heading north to Gloucestershire

Yes I get what you mean about Bristol! Something odd about it. This is why I always encouraged my old students when I was a teacher to go and physically visit the town they wanted to go to uni in.
Also, not a place, but there is a local school to me that just freaks me out. I'm not sure why. Even the logo for it and driving past gives me huge anxiety. Thinking about it now my stomach is twisting and turning. Very odd - it's a great school and I've never heard of any bad experiences etc. It just really scares me!

Bristol is a great city. Everyone rubs along together, it’s diverse and friendly.

yes Broadmead is run down and tatty but that’s most town centres these days isn’t it? I’ve certainly seen far worse.

most cities have posh parts and less posh parts, so what?

it could rain a bit less ideally but what can you do about that.

it’s the only city in the UK I’d want to live in.

Had a lovely weekend there in June. No bad vibes at all. But then I've not felt these feelings people describe about various places anywhere.

Bristol, Liverpool, Coventry ,all have come up on here as eery places.

Bristol and Liverpool are similar feeling to me. Both have docks, both associated with the slave trade, both suffered from WWII bombing. I know Liverpool better than Bristol, I feel more comfortable there but it has happier associations than Bristol does for me, the Beatles influence is massive.

Coventry is simply a rebuilt post WW2 city. A concrete jungle with a ring road and a burnt out Cathedral.

I think we feel the history.

I like Bristol, I'd be happy to live there.

I grew up in Bristol. Those houses set into the cliffs by the harbour, with the slave caves running out the back.... spooky.

I had a dark, oppressive feeling in Pollensa, Majorca. Couldn’t wait to leave there.

In the 30s Graham Greene described Brighton as ‘a town perpetually helping the police with their inquiries’ - still perfectly sums it up today, and I say that as someone who loves the place! Some towns just have an unshakeable gritty (or grotty!) essence, no matter how modernised or gentrified they get. Just depends if that appeals to you or not.

It has a very high rainfall, so you are right there!

This is such a funny post! Which parts of Bristol did you visit and feel uneasy in??

I'm a Bristolian born and bred. The only place I've felt uncomfortable is Stapleton Road.

Not this again..! I've seen this exact post before about Bristol & Bath.
I don't know if I get that vibe. It seems a lot of people do though.
I think Bath was built on some sort of dip? Like a valley & a lot of people believe this is why it has strange vibes.

Bristol feels weird and somehow under shadow, and a bit dank to me. I feel like it's a landscape/weather thing somehow.

Conversely I love both Cambridge and Brighton. They just feel somehow airier and fresher to me. It's odd. I definitely get a strange feeling from certain landscapes.

Am sure there's a name for this phenomenon but I can't think of it...

I had this feeling in Sheffield!

Leicester for me! I've visited a couple of times for job interviews in the last few years and there's just a really weird oppressive energy in the town centre like I'm in a video game level that I've already completed and now there's no purpose to the game and there will be no more magical crystals left to find.

There seem to be an excessive number of black puffa jackets worn in Bristol. And you can feel the sea wind coming in...

I don’t think the people in Clifton and Sneyd Park whose cars are targeted by vandals would agree with ‘rubbing along together’, and there has been a lot of tension related to the van-dwellers.

We had to spend the night in Bristol recently when our flight was cancelled. Not a pleasant experience, it felt very u safe walking around at night.

Many years ago I had similar experiences to you OP.
Bristol was a very bad place with Slave Trade. I think that is part of it.

I can;t be there anymore. It scares me too much and I think it has a whole unfriendly vibe.

Broadmead was built on the site of an old plague pit and was heavily bombed in WW2. might explain the horrible vibe in that place.

You only have to look at the house prices there to know that most people don’t think Bristol is shit. Same with Bath.

The areas around it are a bit grotty too. Keynsham etc run down.

Been watching too much Peaky Blinders.

I find Bristol a bit ‘try hard’. Coffee bars too pretentious, as was a hotel we stayed in which was a converted coal shed or something. Good restaurants, but no warm vibe. For me, London is more real and grounded.

Maybe it's due to 'The Hum'