It took me a long time to actually take a look at the Dove Street flats. Out of the corner of my eye I had seen them, three 1960s towers poking over the top of the buildings on the west side of Stokes Croft, or catching a glimpse of them down the long staricases and alleyways that run from Kingsdown down the side of Cotham Hill.
If you are free at 8:45 PM on Wednesday 16th February tune in to Four Thought on Radio 4 (though the programme will be available for a week or two on iPlayer too).
In his early architectural work, especially on churches, Godwin took a close interest in tiling, and his sketchbooks include many plans and designs for the floors of Northampton Town Hall and other buildings.
The Bear Pit (aka the sunken pedestrian precinct in the centre of the St James Barton Roundabout) is not just ugly and neglected – it is contagious.
For most of the 1870s Godwin was designing high-end wallpaper for some of the country’s leading paper stainers and art furniture houses.
Stokes Croft is changing, visually, culturally and economically; compared to even to a couple of years ago there is now more street art, more artists and exhibitions, more businesses and punters.
While in later life Godwin was a creative polymath, the first twenty years of his career were focused on architecture and much of that work was done in Bristol.
There is, as far as I can see, no online directory or compilation of Godwin’s many different works. Images and information are scattered across many sites, in various museum collections, private ownership and antiques galleries.
Stokes Croft is, as you will know from the sign in the central reservation at the southern end of the street, twinned with St Ives.
For an urban location that is over two centuries old, it sometimes feels strange that transience is a defining characteristic of Stokes Croft.