Clifton and Hotwells Improvement Society (CHIS)

In Bristol as a whole, planning was overseen by the City Engineer. A large area of Clifton was scheduled for demolition to build the Outer Circuit Road, with its eleven interchanges. (The only interchange eventually completed at Totterdown, resulted in 550 families being evicted and their houses demolished!).

Another grandiose plan was to culvert over the Floating Harbour to provide additional space for office development.

Writing in 1989, local architect Michael Jenner says: "The Circuit Road was only one of the threats to Bristol and Clifton, most of them proposed by people who thought they were working for the common good, but were desperately out of touch with public opinion. Some of their proposals seem today so bizarre that people can't believe them .... The 60s and 70s was the period when the planners and the grottiest commercial architects ruled."

The picture of Clifton itself was of decaying Georgian terraces, many little better than slums, owned frequently by uninterested landlords. In those few houses which were being repaired, after years of wartime and post-war neglect, original fittings such as fireplaces, mantelpieces, panelled doors, sash windows and shutters were being ripped out wholesale and plaster ceiling mouldings broken by internal sub-divisions. Balconies and their roofs hung precariously in many cases, peeling paint and broken rendering covered facades or, if the original stone had been retained, it was streaked with soot. Front railings and balconies displayed all the colours of the rainbow. The gardens in front of the major terraces had often lost their surrounding railings for scrap during the 1939-45 war and the trees and shrubs were neglected and lawns weed-infested.

In Hotwells many bomb-damaged properties had been demolished and others were under threat, while decisions over future road plans caused planner's blight to hinder development of the area.

Yet despite this, much of Clifton still retained a raffish charm which appealed across generations and classes. Indeed, the area was in many ways a much more representative and interesting cross-section of the community than it is today. There was a wealth of friendly service shops within easy walking distance and the pubs, each with its own character, were essentially 'locals'. Parking was easy by day or night.

A handful of younger people with energy, attracted by the Georgian and Victorian architecture, the ease of shopping and convenience for commuting, began buying these houses and gradually restoring them.

It was a group these younger people and some older residents who cared for Clifton and Hotwells who came together on 1 April 1968 at a meeting in Caledonia Place to discuss the problems and to try to find a way forward.

These 30 pioneers arrived at the meeting buzzing with the latest proposal - that the Mall Gardens were scheduled to become a tarmacked car park with a public lavatory and electricity sub-station to complete the effect!

By the end of the meeting is was agreed that Clifton and Hotwells needed a society to protect and especially to improve the area. A list of aims was drawn up and a committee elected. CHIS was born.

• Constitution drawn up and charitable status obtained.
• Membership grows from 30 - 950.
• A regular Newsletter issued and monthly talks arranged.
• The register of planning applications scanned weekly by a Planning Group and members informed of proposals affecting them, despite frequent difficulties in gaining access to the register from Council officials.
• Communal gardens registered as Town Greens and maintained by the Parks Department.
• Spare parts store established to save doors, shutters, mantelpieces etc. which were about to be destroyed by builders.
• 200 trees planted in the "Plant a tree in '73" and "Plant some more in '74" campaigns.
• Lime Walk in St Andrews pleached annually.
• Support given to bringing back SS Great Britain.
• Plaques erected to prominent former residents.
• Successful battles against plans to:
  • demolish Boyce's Buildings for a Fine Fare supermarket with delivery access through Boyce's Avenue. [Dismissed after a public enquiry]
  • demolish 10-17 Park Place for a 150-bed hotel. [Permission refused]
  • Grand Spa Hotel bid to erect a 126-bed hotel and multi-storey car park in the Gorge, a hundred yards from the Suspension Bridge. Planning permission given by the City Council. CHIS, with other societies, and backed by John Betjeman, got the plan quashed after a nine-day Public Enquiry.

Gradually the Planning Group of CHIS began to work with rather than against the local authority. A Conservation Advisory Panel was set up by the City Council to look at major plans and the Society's opinion on planning matters was increasingly sought by both planners and developers.

The Department of the Environment offered Town Scheme Grants, helped by City Council funding, to four of Clifton's major terraces, which did much to restore them.

The potential of Clifton became more apparent and a new generation of owners, buying rather than renting, began to make Clifton and Hotwells their home.

Residents' societies, previously dormant or defunct, were formed to make improvements to their local areas.

This more affluent Clifton gave rise to new problems. Many of the small service shops could no longer afford increased leasehold payments and were replaced by boutiques, restaurants and wine bars serving the whole of Bristol and beyond rather than the local community. During this period four small food stores, three butchers, two greengrocers, a Woolworth's, baker's, draper's, ironmonger's, tailor's, and fishmonger's, amongst many others, were lost in the centre of Clifton alone.

The new shops created refuse problems and a sharp increase in vandalism was evident after closing time. There was also a dramatic increase in the amount of traffic and problems with parking.

As well as carrying out many 'routine' activities, the Society:

• Recruited over 1000 members
• Obtained a change of refuse collection times. Sacks of restaurant rubbish had previously sat on pavements from Saturday night to Monday morning.
• Planted bulbs of a rotating basis in Clifton, Cliftonwood and Hotwells.
• Established the annual Gardens Competition, Summer Reception and Christmas Party.
• Produced two Town Trails - annotated walks around the area.
• Carried out a parking survey and held public meetings.
• Challenged late night and new licensing applications.
• Arranged reciprocal visits to other societies.
• Gave financial and other support for the creation of the Hope Centre.
• Planning activities included:
  • Preventing the Observatory from becoming a restaurant
  • Preserving Clifton Down Congregational Chapel, the rear facade of Dingles and the facades of houses in Woodland Road
  • Commenting on plans for the BBC building in Whiteladies Road.

Parking and traffic management became critical and the closure of shops was viewed with concern. House and flat owners struggling to pay mortgages were often not maintaining their properties as they did a few years earlier.

During these years, most of the regular activities previously describe continued to be carried out and CHIS:

Certain issues continued to pose the same problems almost since the Society began, such as parking, refuse and overhanging branches.

Much effort which could have been used more productively was channeled into preservation, especially fight the surge of licensing applications in Whiteladies Road and the heart of Clifton. By 1996 there were 44 licensed premises in Clifton and 52 in Whiteladies Road. Saturation point had been reached. Long and complicated opposition was put forward against further licences in large premises such as the former Antiques Market, the Osmond Tricks building in Regent Street and Maples.

The Planning Department finally issued a special guidance note limiting further development.

This period also saw: