Something About Bellairs in Bristol: Cotham Gardens

For refuge straight to Bristol!

Several years ago, Bellairsia began retracing John Bellairs's footsteps in England. From June 1967 to January 1968, Bellairs moved to England to write and made Bristol his base of operations for most, if not all, of this time. Bristol is England's sixth and the United Kingdom's eighth most-populous city, and the most populous city in Southern England after London.

The first Bristol clue came from a letter from Bellairs’s one-time roommate at the University of Chicago, John Drew. In Drew’s extant correspondence was an address in Cotham Gardens, Bristol. No street number and not much more to go on. Plus, online searches showed Cotham Garden more an outdoor activity area or park and likely not home to any housing units.

The archives show the city of Bristol was emailed and Dave Roberts answered the query:

"To slightly confuse matters, Cotham Gardens is both a public park and a street name. While they're not very far apart, they're not immediately adjacent. It is not impossible that the park might have been referred to in an address but with the proximity of an identically named street it seems unlikely. This area was developed in the Nineteenth Century as home to the wealthy and professional classes. At the time you're interested in, it was experiencing a distinct downturn in its profile, now thoroughly reversed, but then as now there would have been numerous flats to rent, and a number of small hotels or boarding houses."

As Roberts says, Cotham Gardens Street is a few blocks west of the similarly named gardens. The Sept. 2011 "Cotham and Redland Character Appraisal & Management Proposals" notes the gardens were:

"... one of the first public gardens created in the city on land donated to the council by the Fry family from the Cotham Tower estate in 1879. The new park, already planted with many mature trees, was opened in April 1881. Much of the layout of the southern end of the park survives with its intricate system of paths and trees intact. The trustees of the owners of Redland Court also donated part of that property’s avenue and the lower part of Redland Grove (Lovers’ Walk) in 1884. Redland Road was widened and its tree avenue planted at this time."

I’m also in agreement with Roberts and Drew’s address refer to the street, not the public park.

And I'll touch on the street in part II, coming soon.