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Why are there so many colourful houses in Bristol?

158 points by edward 3y ago

steviedotboston 3y ago
I visited Devon on my trip to the UK and was really surprised to see palm trees around the coast.
- gerdesj 3y ago
  That would be the Devon "Riviera": Torquay/Paignton.
- zoklet-enjoyer 3y ago
  Speaking of palm trees in unexpected places, I was excited to see them in Vancouver, BC
- teruakohatu 3y ago
  They are called palms in that region but are Cordyline australis from New Zealand where they are called cabbage trees and are everywhere. They do quite well in colder New Zealand climate regions. If you are unlucky to live next door to a mature cabbage tree planted along the neighbours fence, you will spend your life picking up fallen leaves, which cannot be put in our green waste bins, on general refuse, because they don't decompose easily (18 months under careful ideal composting conditions, years otherwise). Its not uncommon to find a giant pile of cabbage tree leaves behind someone's house because they have been meaning for years to take them to the rubbish dump. Every so often someone asks on reddit what they should do with their pile. Another interesting face is they can live to 400+ years although often they can rot internally after 100.
  - quickthrower2 3y ago
    Would they make good material for roofing?
    - teruakohatu 3y ago
      They are not very long. So I wouldn't think so. And in New Zealand almost all roofs are steel.
  - redjet 3y ago
    Canary date palms (phoenix canariensis) can and do grow in southern England, although they don't fruit. Immature date palms need to be protected in winter, this is often achieved by bundling and tying the fronds together.
- rjh29 3y ago
  Where I grew up. I always wince at the name "English Riviera" though.
  - gerdesj 3y ago
    Where did you grow up? Côte d'Azur? Right, let's dig into the authoritative source of all knowledge ... Wikipedia! According to that: "Riviera is an Italian word that originates from the ancient Ligurian territory of Italy" So the French region that Torbay riffs on is also itself riffing on an Italian region. and: "The Côte d'Azur (coast of azure) is a nickname given by France to the County of Nice after its annexation in 1860, because the climate was similar to that of the north of Italy," When you look at it like that: English/Devon/Torbay Riviera is simply following a proud European tradition. Riviera is simply a generic term (originates from Italian) for a region with a specific climate. If you read further through the WP article it seems that Brits were involved in the original use of the term and that explains why we would designate a similarly named region here. No need to cringe.
    - seszett 3y ago
      > So the French region that Torbay riffs on is also itself riffing on an Italian region. Maybe nitpicking but the French Riviera is just the (now) French side of the "original" Riviera. It's not a reference to a different place. Nice used to be part of Liguria before the 1860 annexation and the English simply kept refering to it as Riviera (while the French, including locals, only call it Côte d'Azur).
      - gerdesj 3y ago
        Our parent is almost certainly a Devonian. My mum was born in Dartmouth. I went to school in Newton Abbot. I understand why using the term Riviera might look a bit naff for Torbay - hence the cringe. Riviera is still an Italian term, regardless of where it is applied - France or Inglaterra.
buggeryorkshire 3y ago
It's not unique, there's quite a few and I like them. Friend of mine I knew in Cheltenham UK managed the same when she moved to Gloucester https://metro.co.uk/2023/06/01/rainbow-road-artist-unveils-latest-street-of-63-colourful-houses-18879590/ https://metro.co.uk/2023/06/01/rainbow-road-artist-unveils-l...
- stuaxo 3y ago
  Brighton has a lot of colour terraced houses too.
grumblepeet 3y ago
Some of these photos are just around the corner from my house. Weird to see them in Hacker News. Some of the people who own houses in my area have started hacking off the painted cement and brought the houses back to plain brick. Even some of the ones who had murals painted on them for Upfest (mentioned in the article), it seems a more conservative feel has started taking over. I think it’s sad to see the colours disappearing.
- tomxor 3y ago
  Don't worry, Banksy is always waiting to strike just around the corner to spice up the place. Although then there is the risk of someone removing the wall and selling it. Also I noticed his latest thing got immediately scribbled over.. Honestly though the bright colours are mostly on the highly visible houses on hillsides, as soon as you get into the thick of the houses, even up in fancy Clifton it all turns a lot less colourful for 99%. Not that there's anything wrong with that, I think people just like having their house as part of the view, and contribute their little bit, just so they can say "I'm the pink one on the end" - I would :D
- Nursie 3y ago
  Is this due to the stage Bristol has reached in the gentrification cycle? It's been a vibrant alternative town, but from what I understand, this made it desirable to more and more people moved in, especially as London (and I guess Brighton) became completely out of reach for most people on normal incomes. What follows is probably a more conservative, less colourful mindset...
  - Ultimatt 3y ago
    I suspect a lot of the back to brick is actually more phase one of dealing with damp. Once its dried out a lot of houses in my area then go and get coloured insulating render. So it's not even paint anymore but the actual material is coloured.
- secretsatan 3y ago
  One the photo’s has my Aunt’s house in it, i always like visiting the city, some of my family is from the area
DoreenMichele 3y ago
In San Francisco, there's Painted Ladies. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Painted_ladies https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Painted_ladies I have this vague, hand-wavy impression it's somewhat common in coastal communities. I spent some time looking for a term for a particular house style and can't seem to find it. There's a particular style of small house with big windows and shutters typically found in beach vacation towns and they tend to be colorful.
- dkasper 3y ago
  There are tons of pastel colored houses in SF and some of the surrounding towns. It’s nice to have some variety.
hansjorg 3y ago
In Greenland they had a system to encode what purpose a building had. For example, if you were in a medical emergency, you would look for a yellow building. > Red buildings signified churches, schools, teachers’ or ministers’ houses. Yellow colours were assigned to hospitals, doctors, and health care personnel. Green was at first the symbol for radio communication and later became the colour of telecommunications. The colour blue was often reserved for fish factories. Police stations were black. https://www.polar-quest.com/blog/greenland/the-backstory-of-greenland-s-colourful-houses https://www.polar-quest.com/blog/greenland/the-backstory-of-...
- looping8 3y ago
  Is there a reason why they used those specific colors? I don't understand why a hospital would be yellow or a police station would be black by default. My guess would be white and blue, respectively.
  - _xivi 3y ago
    > I don't understand why a hospital would be yellow or a police station would be black by default. My guess would be white and blue, respectively. Snow. At least that'd be my first guess for not going with white. In general, you want to use distinctive characteristics that aren't common in that environment.
    - Jensson 3y ago
      Snow in the air is probably a bigger problem than snow on the ground, blizzards with 20m or less visibility aren't that uncommon far north, really easy to get lost and die during those since the snow also blots out the terrain unlike fog. Imagine trying to find a hospital under these conditions, vibrant color coding helps save lives then: https://i.ytimg.com/vi/sSjqaDJiG0c/maxresdefault.jpg https://i.ytimg.com/vi/sSjqaDJiG0c/maxresdefault.jpg
  - danpalmer 3y ago
    Despite it's name I suspect there was in fact a lot of snow that would make a white building too inconspicuous.
lib-dev 3y ago
In St. John's NFLD, many houses around the downtown are painted like that as well. I love the look. Apparently, they would use boat paint because: A) they had a lot of it and B) it holds up well to the elements.
- adamgordonbell 3y ago
  No odea if true, but I had heard for Newfoundland it was to do with the salt in the air. Traditional paint wouldn't last long.
  - loudandskittish 3y ago
    ...I'd always heard it was to make it easier to find your house after too much Screech.
    - lib-dev 3y ago
      Hahaha! :D
  - lib-dev 3y ago
    Ah now that you mention it, that does sound right! I forgot that part of the story.
- flakes 3y ago
  Newfie here. Newfoundland dropped the NLFD abbreviation for just NL about 20 years or so ago. I’ve always heard that we painted the houses with whatever paint was on hand because the wind is strong that it strips away every couple of years. And we’re not a rich group of people, so whatever paint you have is the right paint! My grandfather used to remark on the houses “they were crap when the went up, but somehow lasted 50 years, so I guess they’re heritage now”. But, they do look pretty in the summer!
  - flakes 3y ago
    On the note of our acronym: After being a territory of Brittan, Newfoundland was its own country for a brief period of time. Much earlier before this point, Brittan conquered Labrador from the french (which used to be called "New France"), and the ownership over the land was disputed between Quebec and the self-governing colony of Newfoundland for quite some time. The dispute lasted into the mid 1920's, leaving the upper portion of the land in Newfoundland control. Some islands remain to this day under French governance, such as Saint Pierre & Miquelon. When we joined Canada in 1949, we retained Labrador, but were still named Newfoundland, having the acronym NFLD. In the early 2000's we decided to change the name to Newfoundland and Labrador to better reflect our province, and as part of this change, redefined the acronym as NL.
rcarr 3y ago
I really wish they'd do this everywhere. In the town I live in there are a lot of houses and shops that are just exceptionally grim to look at. Everything is dilapidated, rotting, grey and pebbledashed. I can't help but think that, even if it's not fixing the root causes of why everything is shit, it would at least make things a bit less miserable and maybe give people a bit of joy and pride again for a pretty low cost. I'm pretty sure they did this exact same thing in a favela or slum somewhere and most of the residents agreed that it substantially improved life in the neighbourhood.
- stevekemp 3y ago
  Meanwhile in Edinburgh there was a lot of drama because one of the residents painted their door - and apparently that didn't suit the conservative area! She finally managed to keep a pink door though: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-66259586 https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-662...
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
  - ClassyJacket 3y ago
    My god, it isn't even a gaudy pink, that's incredibly mild.
    - pstuart 3y ago
      True, but the article stated she started off with bright pink. Still not a crime, though.
      - otteromkram 3y ago
        No one said it was a crime.
        simonbarker87 3y ago
wly_cdgr 3y ago
Only thing keeping the residents from killing themselves on account of living in Bristol
- bpye 3y ago
  I’m not really sure why you say that. Bristol is an expensive city, and certainly has its faults - public transport is certainly not great, for example. But I think in general, not a bad place to be.
- rpickering 3y ago
  I'd really have to disagree with you there! I've lived in Bristol for 4 years, having previously spent 8 years in London - people are I know are happy here and find it difficult to leave. I've never lived in such an uplifting, diverse, creative place as I do now (Easton, BS5). Also worth mentioning (response to a comment above) that there's a lot of colourful houses and murals all over the city, not just on the bits you see on postcards...!
  - DoingIsLearning 3y ago
    As a foreigner, Bristolians were the most congenial and welcoming neighbours I have had through out my time in the UK, and I moved around a fair bit in the past decades. I still have very good friends (and memories) in Bristol. Nothing but positive things to say from the city and from big hearted Bristolians. Like you say there really is a positive energy about the place. Truly gert lush!
- DonHopkins 3y ago
  But it's world renowned for its famous seven level Bristol Stool Scale! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bristol_stool_scale https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bristol_stool_scale https://www.continence.org.au/bristol-stool-chart https://www.continence.org.au/bristol-stool-chart They should open up an amusement park with themed rides and attractions to rival the Hundeprutterutchebane. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hundeprutterutchebane https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hundeprutterutchebane https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oL8az1fV1Tw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oL8az1fV1Tw
southwesterly 3y ago
Nice to see my home city in all its splendour.
chriskelley 3y ago
Reminds me of La Boca in Buenos Aires: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=la+boca+buenos+aires&t=osx&iax=images&ia=images https://duckduckgo.com/?q=la+boca+buenos+aires&t=osx&iax=ima... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Boca https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Boca
- aylmao 3y ago
  I found the article interesting as someone born and raised in Latin America. It's not uncommon to see colorful houses here and street art. It leads me to wonder if areas with houses painted in bright colors are noteworthy at a global scale.
fredthedeadhead 3y ago
A couple of other peculiar colourful facts about Bristol: * Ex-mayor George Ferguson (mentioned in the article) always wears red trousers, except when Bristol won the European Green Capital 2015 he wore green trousers in celebration. * All licensed taxis in Bristol are blue, specifically Bristol Blue https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bristol_blue_glass https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bristol_blue_glass
- glompers 3y ago
  What about the Vicious Chicken Of Bristol??? Any truth to that? "Narrator: Sir Bedevere the Wise was the first to become one of King Arthur's Knights. But other illustrious names were soon to follow: Sir Lancelot the Brave, Sir Gallahad the Pure, Sir Robin the Not-Quite-So-Brave-As-Sir-Lancelot — who had nearly fought the Dragon of Angnor, who had nearly stood up to the Vicious Chicken of Bristol, and who had personally wet himself at the Battle of Badon Hill — and the aptly named Sir Not-Appearing-In-This-Film. Together they formed a band whose names and deeds were to be retold throughout the centuries: the Knights of the Round Table."
- Digit-Al 3y ago
  It also has a chain of fried chicken shops called lickin' chicken, that has a kids meal called lickin' kids lol
fijiaarone 3y ago
TLDR: yuppies
AM1010101 3y ago
I live in one of the colourful houses in Clifton wood. We have a local WhatsApp group and one of the residents posted this a few months back: “A couple of people claim they were the first to paint Cliftonwood houses a bright colour in the 70’s, one being our ex-mayor George Ferguson. But the wonderful late Joan from Cliftonwood Cres told me that was ‘codswallop’. Also when we moved in here fifteen years ago, we were told there were five colours allowed for the houses and that was that .” Others then disputed it and said there was never a 5 colour rule and quoted Annie Scott (who was an architect) started the trend. I’ve also heard it said that this area was popular popular with artists and the rebellious types back in the day vs the more posh types in Clifton on top of the hill. There are some photos of the harbour from back when it was a working harbour, before the houses were painted, and it looks far less appealing (https://www.instagram.com/p/CyMNzAXIOY-/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA== https://www.instagram.com/p/CyMNzAXIOY-/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFl...). If you do end up on Instagram search for Bristol harbour to see what it’s like now.
- shellac 3y ago
  > the more posh types in Clifton on top of the hill In the 70s Clifton wasn't really posh either. Like many cities at the time the affluent had moved out to the suburbs (e.g. across the Downs or Gorge). Difficult to believe now, of course.
- buster3000 3y ago
  > A couple of people claim they were the first to paint Cliftonwood houses a bright colour in the 70’s, one being our ex-mayor George Ferguson Classic behaviour by old red-trousers.
Animats 3y ago
Little boxes on the hillside Little boxes made of ticky tacky Little boxes on the hillside Little boxes all the same There's a pink one and a green one And a blue one and a yellow one And they're all made out of ticky tacky And they all look just the same "Little Boxes", 1961 [1] It refers to Daly City, incidentally. Multicolored tract houses were a 1950s California thing. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUoXtddNPAM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUoXtddNPAM
qingcharles 3y ago
One of these is Blackbeard's house, as I learned on one of the Pirate Walks when I lived there: https://www.tripadvisor.com/LocationPhotoDirectLink-g186220-d1566881-i204746978-Pirate_Walks-Bristol_England.html https://www.tripadvisor.com/LocationPhotoDirectLink-g186220-...
jl6 3y ago
This is the second Bristol post I’ve seen on HN in as many days. And quite right too! It’s a fab little city that I always enjoy visiting. It’s big enough to have lots going on, without being oppressively Big like London or Birmingham. For more Bristol, I highly recommend the BBC comedy-drama series The Outlaws.
- Ultimatt 3y ago
  if you want something set where the colourful houses are, the original Being Human series too
- roydivision 3y ago
  I moved out of the UK almost 20 years ago. If I was ever to move back (not right now...) Bristol would be top of the list for potential homes for exactly those reasons. And of course it was the birth place of trip-hop.
- fredley 3y ago
  A House Through Time, series 3, is one of the best portraits of Bristol I think I've ever seen. Astonishing television. https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000jjn8/a-house-through-time-series-3-episode-1 https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000jjn8/a-house-throu...
- kevthecoder 3y ago
  As an aside, they were filming the latest series of The Outlaws at the same time as the annual St Werburghs City Farm Fair was due to run. The income from the fair is one of the biggest sources of income for the City Farm charity, so Outlaws paid the Farm the same amount they normally got from the Fair. Probably a good deal for the Farm as it takes a huge amount of effort to run the fair (but they also staged a delayed fair a few weeks ago too!). Honourable mention to Windmill Hill City Farm on the other side of town too.
fredley 3y ago
Bristolian here (nice to see others here too!) Painting houses like this is quite common in Wales, near the sea particularly. See places like Tenby. Bristol being very close to Wales means it does have more cultural crossover than the rest of the UK, I wonder if that has anything to do with it.
- pbhjpbhj 3y ago
  Tobermory, on Mull in Scotland, is a well known (UK) example of colourful houses - it is shoreside too. It's probably that in most tightly packed housing there's no vista, only on the shore does that become possible and so the use of colour enhances the visual amenity. Who did it first?
  - sambeau 3y ago
    The romans, I suspect.
    - sambeau 3y ago
      By which I mean, the Mediterranean coast has loads of colourful seaside towns The Amalfi coast (see Vernazza for an amazing example, or the other four Cinque Terre, or Pixar's Luca for a well-observed only slightly exaggerated version), Menton in France is very colourful, Venice has very colourful bits… Roman houses, much like their now-white statues, were very colourful, so I suspect they spread their love of coloured plaster wherever they settled. Though I am not an historian (IANAH).
- sambeau 3y ago
  And Brighton, especially Hanover, Devon, Cornwall, Norwich, Lavenham, even Notting Hill in London. Scotland has Portree and Tobermory. Ireland has loads of painted rows like this.
archydeb 3y ago
I've just moved back to Bristol (grew up here) and delighted to see this on HN. Since this post is likely to be a good honeypot: can anybody recommend any good tech meetups here? I run an energy tech company and looking to meet like-minded folk
- kevthecoder 3y ago
  PyData Bristol often has good talks. It used to be hosted in the Ovo building (the energy company), but travels around. https://www.meetup.com/PyData-Bristol/ https://www.meetup.com/PyData-Bristol/ Lots of other meetups for various aspect of tech. It's Bristol Tech Festival this week too. https://techspark.co/tech-festival/ https://techspark.co/tech-festival/
- royka118 3y ago
  I've always enjoyed going to the MLops meetup (https://www.meetup.com/mlops-community-bristol https://www.meetup.com/mlops-community-bristol), always very good talks on a wide range of subjects. There is also PyData Bristol (https://www.meetup.com/pydata-bristol/ https://www.meetup.com/pydata-bristol/)
- nicoburns 3y ago
  SWMobile https://www.meetup.com/swmobile/ https://www.meetup.com/swmobile/ is good if relevant. Also SWUX https://www.meetup.com/swux-meetup-com/ https://www.meetup.com/swux-meetup-com/ which is UX (so not technically tech), but has an excellent tech-adjacent community, and lot of members who work for tech companies even if they're not techies themselves.
Steve44 3y ago
There are also some in Tobermory on the island of Mull in Scotland. It's used as the setting for a BBC children's TV series called Balamory. https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/photo/coulorful-houses-in-tobermory-harbour-royalty-free-image/590486425 https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/photo/coulorful-houses-... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWBAINpDuvk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWBAINpDuvk
aquir 3y ago
Please don't embed Instragram posts into your article, just put the actual photo in with a link to the post! I am blocking all meta crap and the photos are not showing...I'm sure I'm not the only one who does that. Thanks!
CalRobert 3y ago
Unfortunately planning rules are such that houses are all supposed to look the same as others around them (and for the most part, kinda ugly)
hcrisp 3y ago
The island town of Burano, Italy, is another place known for colorful houses. They were originally said to help sailors at sea, but they are now protected by law and to change the color you must apply to the government for approval. https://www.untoldmorsels.com/burano-venice-colorful-houses-in-italy/ https://www.untoldmorsels.com/burano-venice-colorful-houses-...

158 points by edward 3y ago

steviedotboston 3y ago

I visited Devon on my trip to the UK and was really surprised to see palm trees around the coast.

gerdesj 3y ago
That would be the Devon "Riviera": Torquay/Paignton.
zoklet-enjoyer 3y ago
Speaking of palm trees in unexpected places, I was excited to see them in Vancouver, BC
teruakohatu 3y ago
They are called palms in that region but are Cordyline australis from New Zealand where they are called cabbage trees and are everywhere. They do quite well in colder New Zealand climate regions. If you are unlucky to live next door to a mature cabbage tree planted along the neighbours fence, you will spend your life picking up fallen leaves, which cannot be put in our green waste bins, on general refuse, because they don't decompose easily (18 months under careful ideal composting conditions, years otherwise). Its not uncommon to find a giant pile of cabbage tree leaves behind someone's house because they have been meaning for years to take them to the rubbish dump. Every so often someone asks on reddit what they should do with their pile. Another interesting face is they can live to 400+ years although often they can rot internally after 100.
- quickthrower2 3y ago
  Would they make good material for roofing?
  - teruakohatu 3y ago
    They are not very long. So I wouldn't think so. And in New Zealand almost all roofs are steel.
- redjet 3y ago
  Canary date palms (phoenix canariensis) can and do grow in southern England, although they don't fruit. Immature date palms need to be protected in winter, this is often achieved by bundling and tying the fronds together.
rjh29 3y ago
Where I grew up. I always wince at the name "English Riviera" though.
- gerdesj 3y ago
  Where did you grow up? Côte d'Azur? Right, let's dig into the authoritative source of all knowledge ... Wikipedia! According to that: "Riviera is an Italian word that originates from the ancient Ligurian territory of Italy" So the French region that Torbay riffs on is also itself riffing on an Italian region. and: "The Côte d'Azur (coast of azure) is a nickname given by France to the County of Nice after its annexation in 1860, because the climate was similar to that of the north of Italy," When you look at it like that: English/Devon/Torbay Riviera is simply following a proud European tradition. Riviera is simply a generic term (originates from Italian) for a region with a specific climate. If you read further through the WP article it seems that Brits were involved in the original use of the term and that explains why we would designate a similarly named region here. No need to cringe.
  - seszett 3y ago
    > So the French region that Torbay riffs on is also itself riffing on an Italian region. Maybe nitpicking but the French Riviera is just the (now) French side of the "original" Riviera. It's not a reference to a different place. Nice used to be part of Liguria before the 1860 annexation and the English simply kept refering to it as Riviera (while the French, including locals, only call it Côte d'Azur).
    - gerdesj 3y ago
      Our parent is almost certainly a Devonian. My mum was born in Dartmouth. I went to school in Newton Abbot. I understand why using the term Riviera might look a bit naff for Torbay - hence the cringe. Riviera is still an Italian term, regardless of where it is applied - France or Inglaterra.

buggeryorkshire 3y ago

It's not unique, there's quite a few and I like them. Friend of mine I knew in Cheltenham UK managed the same when she moved to Gloucester https://metro.co.uk/2023/06/01/rainbow-road-artist-unveils-latest-street-of-63-colourful-houses-18879590/ https://metro.co.uk/2023/06/01/rainbow-road-artist-unveils-l...

stuaxo 3y ago
Brighton has a lot of colour terraced houses too.

grumblepeet 3y ago

Some of these photos are just around the corner from my house. Weird to see them in Hacker News. Some of the people who own houses in my area have started hacking off the painted cement and brought the houses back to plain brick. Even some of the ones who had murals painted on them for Upfest (mentioned in the article), it seems a more conservative feel has started taking over. I think it’s sad to see the colours disappearing.

tomxor 3y ago
Don't worry, Banksy is always waiting to strike just around the corner to spice up the place. Although then there is the risk of someone removing the wall and selling it. Also I noticed his latest thing got immediately scribbled over.. Honestly though the bright colours are mostly on the highly visible houses on hillsides, as soon as you get into the thick of the houses, even up in fancy Clifton it all turns a lot less colourful for 99%. Not that there's anything wrong with that, I think people just like having their house as part of the view, and contribute their little bit, just so they can say "I'm the pink one on the end" - I would :D
Nursie 3y ago
Is this due to the stage Bristol has reached in the gentrification cycle? It's been a vibrant alternative town, but from what I understand, this made it desirable to more and more people moved in, especially as London (and I guess Brighton) became completely out of reach for most people on normal incomes. What follows is probably a more conservative, less colourful mindset...
- Ultimatt 3y ago
  I suspect a lot of the back to brick is actually more phase one of dealing with damp. Once its dried out a lot of houses in my area then go and get coloured insulating render. So it's not even paint anymore but the actual material is coloured.
secretsatan 3y ago
One the photo’s has my Aunt’s house in it, i always like visiting the city, some of my family is from the area

DoreenMichele 3y ago

In San Francisco, there's Painted Ladies. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Painted_ladies https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Painted_ladies I have this vague, hand-wavy impression it's somewhat common in coastal communities. I spent some time looking for a term for a particular house style and can't seem to find it. There's a particular style of small house with big windows and shutters typically found in beach vacation towns and they tend to be colorful.

dkasper 3y ago
There are tons of pastel colored houses in SF and some of the surrounding towns. It’s nice to have some variety.

hansjorg 3y ago

In Greenland they had a system to encode what purpose a building had. For example, if you were in a medical emergency, you would look for a yellow building. > Red buildings signified churches, schools, teachers’ or ministers’ houses. Yellow colours were assigned to hospitals, doctors, and health care personnel. Green was at first the symbol for radio communication and later became the colour of telecommunications. The colour blue was often reserved for fish factories. Police stations were black. https://www.polar-quest.com/blog/greenland/the-backstory-of-greenland-s-colourful-houses https://www.polar-quest.com/blog/greenland/the-backstory-of-...

looping8 3y ago
Is there a reason why they used those specific colors? I don't understand why a hospital would be yellow or a police station would be black by default. My guess would be white and blue, respectively.
- _xivi 3y ago
  > I don't understand why a hospital would be yellow or a police station would be black by default. My guess would be white and blue, respectively. Snow. At least that'd be my first guess for not going with white. In general, you want to use distinctive characteristics that aren't common in that environment.
  - Jensson 3y ago
    Snow in the air is probably a bigger problem than snow on the ground, blizzards with 20m or less visibility aren't that uncommon far north, really easy to get lost and die during those since the snow also blots out the terrain unlike fog. Imagine trying to find a hospital under these conditions, vibrant color coding helps save lives then: https://i.ytimg.com/vi/sSjqaDJiG0c/maxresdefault.jpg https://i.ytimg.com/vi/sSjqaDJiG0c/maxresdefault.jpg
- danpalmer 3y ago
  Despite it's name I suspect there was in fact a lot of snow that would make a white building too inconspicuous.

lib-dev 3y ago

In St. John's NFLD, many houses around the downtown are painted like that as well. I love the look. Apparently, they would use boat paint because: A) they had a lot of it and B) it holds up well to the elements.

adamgordonbell 3y ago
No odea if true, but I had heard for Newfoundland it was to do with the salt in the air. Traditional paint wouldn't last long.
- loudandskittish 3y ago
  ...I'd always heard it was to make it easier to find your house after too much Screech.
  - lib-dev 3y ago
    Hahaha! :D
- lib-dev 3y ago
  Ah now that you mention it, that does sound right! I forgot that part of the story.
flakes 3y ago
Newfie here. Newfoundland dropped the NLFD abbreviation for just NL about 20 years or so ago. I’ve always heard that we painted the houses with whatever paint was on hand because the wind is strong that it strips away every couple of years. And we’re not a rich group of people, so whatever paint you have is the right paint! My grandfather used to remark on the houses “they were crap when the went up, but somehow lasted 50 years, so I guess they’re heritage now”. But, they do look pretty in the summer!
- flakes 3y ago
  On the note of our acronym: After being a territory of Brittan, Newfoundland was its own country for a brief period of time. Much earlier before this point, Brittan conquered Labrador from the french (which used to be called "New France"), and the ownership over the land was disputed between Quebec and the self-governing colony of Newfoundland for quite some time. The dispute lasted into the mid 1920's, leaving the upper portion of the land in Newfoundland control. Some islands remain to this day under French governance, such as Saint Pierre & Miquelon. When we joined Canada in 1949, we retained Labrador, but were still named Newfoundland, having the acronym NFLD. In the early 2000's we decided to change the name to Newfoundland and Labrador to better reflect our province, and as part of this change, redefined the acronym as NL.

rcarr 3y ago

I really wish they'd do this everywhere. In the town I live in there are a lot of houses and shops that are just exceptionally grim to look at. Everything is dilapidated, rotting, grey and pebbledashed. I can't help but think that, even if it's not fixing the root causes of why everything is shit, it would at least make things a bit less miserable and maybe give people a bit of joy and pride again for a pretty low cost. I'm pretty sure they did this exact same thing in a favela or slum somewhere and most of the residents agreed that it substantially improved life in the neighbourhood.

stevekemp 3y ago
Meanwhile in Edinburgh there was a lot of drama because one of the residents painted their door - and apparently that didn't suit the conservative area! She finally managed to keep a pink door though: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-66259586 https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-662...
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- ClassyJacket 3y ago
  My god, it isn't even a gaudy pink, that's incredibly mild.
  - pstuart 3y ago
    True, but the article stated she started off with bright pink. Still not a crime, though.
    - otteromkram 3y ago
      No one said it was a crime.
      - simonbarker87 3y ago

wly_cdgr 3y ago

Only thing keeping the residents from killing themselves on account of living in Bristol

bpye 3y ago
I’m not really sure why you say that. Bristol is an expensive city, and certainly has its faults - public transport is certainly not great, for example. But I think in general, not a bad place to be.
rpickering 3y ago
I'd really have to disagree with you there! I've lived in Bristol for 4 years, having previously spent 8 years in London - people are I know are happy here and find it difficult to leave. I've never lived in such an uplifting, diverse, creative place as I do now (Easton, BS5). Also worth mentioning (response to a comment above) that there's a lot of colourful houses and murals all over the city, not just on the bits you see on postcards...!
- DoingIsLearning 3y ago
  As a foreigner, Bristolians were the most congenial and welcoming neighbours I have had through out my time in the UK, and I moved around a fair bit in the past decades. I still have very good friends (and memories) in Bristol. Nothing but positive things to say from the city and from big hearted Bristolians. Like you say there really is a positive energy about the place. Truly gert lush!
DonHopkins 3y ago
But it's world renowned for its famous seven level Bristol Stool Scale! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bristol_stool_scale https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bristol_stool_scale https://www.continence.org.au/bristol-stool-chart https://www.continence.org.au/bristol-stool-chart They should open up an amusement park with themed rides and attractions to rival the Hundeprutterutchebane. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hundeprutterutchebane https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hundeprutterutchebane https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oL8az1fV1Tw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oL8az1fV1Tw

southwesterly 3y ago

Nice to see my home city in all its splendour.

chriskelley 3y ago

Reminds me of La Boca in Buenos Aires: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=la+boca+buenos+aires&t=osx&iax=images&ia=images https://duckduckgo.com/?q=la+boca+buenos+aires&t=osx&iax=ima... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Boca https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Boca

aylmao 3y ago
I found the article interesting as someone born and raised in Latin America. It's not uncommon to see colorful houses here and street art. It leads me to wonder if areas with houses painted in bright colors are noteworthy at a global scale.

fredthedeadhead 3y ago

A couple of other peculiar colourful facts about Bristol: * Ex-mayor George Ferguson (mentioned in the article) always wears red trousers, except when Bristol won the European Green Capital 2015 he wore green trousers in celebration. * All licensed taxis in Bristol are blue, specifically Bristol Blue https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bristol_blue_glass https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bristol_blue_glass

glompers 3y ago
What about the Vicious Chicken Of Bristol??? Any truth to that? "Narrator: Sir Bedevere the Wise was the first to become one of King Arthur's Knights. But other illustrious names were soon to follow: Sir Lancelot the Brave, Sir Gallahad the Pure, Sir Robin the Not-Quite-So-Brave-As-Sir-Lancelot — who had nearly fought the Dragon of Angnor, who had nearly stood up to the Vicious Chicken of Bristol, and who had personally wet himself at the Battle of Badon Hill — and the aptly named Sir Not-Appearing-In-This-Film. Together they formed a band whose names and deeds were to be retold throughout the centuries: the Knights of the Round Table."
Digit-Al 3y ago
It also has a chain of fried chicken shops called lickin' chicken, that has a kids meal called lickin' kids lol

fijiaarone 3y ago

TLDR: yuppies

AM1010101 3y ago

I live in one of the colourful houses in Clifton wood. We have a local WhatsApp group and one of the residents posted this a few months back: “A couple of people claim they were the first to paint Cliftonwood houses a bright colour in the 70’s, one being our ex-mayor George Ferguson. But the wonderful late Joan from Cliftonwood Cres told me that was ‘codswallop’. Also when we moved in here fifteen years ago, we were told there were five colours allowed for the houses and that was that .” Others then disputed it and said there was never a 5 colour rule and quoted Annie Scott (who was an architect) started the trend. I’ve also heard it said that this area was popular popular with artists and the rebellious types back in the day vs the more posh types in Clifton on top of the hill. There are some photos of the harbour from back when it was a working harbour, before the houses were painted, and it looks far less appealing (https://www.instagram.com/p/CyMNzAXIOY-/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA== https://www.instagram.com/p/CyMNzAXIOY-/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFl...). If you do end up on Instagram search for Bristol harbour to see what it’s like now.

shellac 3y ago
> the more posh types in Clifton on top of the hill In the 70s Clifton wasn't really posh either. Like many cities at the time the affluent had moved out to the suburbs (e.g. across the Downs or Gorge). Difficult to believe now, of course.
buster3000 3y ago
> A couple of people claim they were the first to paint Cliftonwood houses a bright colour in the 70’s, one being our ex-mayor George Ferguson Classic behaviour by old red-trousers.

Animats 3y ago

Little boxes on the hillside Little boxes made of ticky tacky Little boxes on the hillside Little boxes all the same There's a pink one and a green one And a blue one and a yellow one And they're all made out of ticky tacky And they all look just the same "Little Boxes", 1961 [1] It refers to Daly City, incidentally. Multicolored tract houses were a 1950s California thing. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUoXtddNPAM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUoXtddNPAM

qingcharles 3y ago

One of these is Blackbeard's house, as I learned on one of the Pirate Walks when I lived there: https://www.tripadvisor.com/LocationPhotoDirectLink-g186220-d1566881-i204746978-Pirate_Walks-Bristol_England.html https://www.tripadvisor.com/LocationPhotoDirectLink-g186220-...

jl6 3y ago

This is the second Bristol post I’ve seen on HN in as many days. And quite right too! It’s a fab little city that I always enjoy visiting. It’s big enough to have lots going on, without being oppressively Big like London or Birmingham. For more Bristol, I highly recommend the BBC comedy-drama series The Outlaws.

Ultimatt 3y ago
if you want something set where the colourful houses are, the original Being Human series too
roydivision 3y ago
I moved out of the UK almost 20 years ago. If I was ever to move back (not right now...) Bristol would be top of the list for potential homes for exactly those reasons. And of course it was the birth place of trip-hop.
fredley 3y ago
A House Through Time, series 3, is one of the best portraits of Bristol I think I've ever seen. Astonishing television. https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000jjn8/a-house-through-time-series-3-episode-1 https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000jjn8/a-house-throu...
kevthecoder 3y ago
As an aside, they were filming the latest series of The Outlaws at the same time as the annual St Werburghs City Farm Fair was due to run. The income from the fair is one of the biggest sources of income for the City Farm charity, so Outlaws paid the Farm the same amount they normally got from the Fair. Probably a good deal for the Farm as it takes a huge amount of effort to run the fair (but they also staged a delayed fair a few weeks ago too!). Honourable mention to Windmill Hill City Farm on the other side of town too.

fredley 3y ago

Bristolian here (nice to see others here too!) Painting houses like this is quite common in Wales, near the sea particularly. See places like Tenby. Bristol being very close to Wales means it does have more cultural crossover than the rest of the UK, I wonder if that has anything to do with it.

pbhjpbhj 3y ago
Tobermory, on Mull in Scotland, is a well known (UK) example of colourful houses - it is shoreside too. It's probably that in most tightly packed housing there's no vista, only on the shore does that become possible and so the use of colour enhances the visual amenity. Who did it first?
- sambeau 3y ago
  The romans, I suspect.
  - sambeau 3y ago
    By which I mean, the Mediterranean coast has loads of colourful seaside towns The Amalfi coast (see Vernazza for an amazing example, or the other four Cinque Terre, or Pixar's Luca for a well-observed only slightly exaggerated version), Menton in France is very colourful, Venice has very colourful bits… Roman houses, much like their now-white statues, were very colourful, so I suspect they spread their love of coloured plaster wherever they settled. Though I am not an historian (IANAH).
sambeau 3y ago
And Brighton, especially Hanover, Devon, Cornwall, Norwich, Lavenham, even Notting Hill in London. Scotland has Portree and Tobermory. Ireland has loads of painted rows like this.

archydeb 3y ago

I've just moved back to Bristol (grew up here) and delighted to see this on HN. Since this post is likely to be a good honeypot: can anybody recommend any good tech meetups here? I run an energy tech company and looking to meet like-minded folk

kevthecoder 3y ago
PyData Bristol often has good talks. It used to be hosted in the Ovo building (the energy company), but travels around. https://www.meetup.com/PyData-Bristol/ https://www.meetup.com/PyData-Bristol/ Lots of other meetups for various aspect of tech. It's Bristol Tech Festival this week too. https://techspark.co/tech-festival/ https://techspark.co/tech-festival/
royka118 3y ago
I've always enjoyed going to the MLops meetup (https://www.meetup.com/mlops-community-bristol https://www.meetup.com/mlops-community-bristol), always very good talks on a wide range of subjects. There is also PyData Bristol (https://www.meetup.com/pydata-bristol/ https://www.meetup.com/pydata-bristol/)
nicoburns 3y ago
SWMobile https://www.meetup.com/swmobile/ https://www.meetup.com/swmobile/ is good if relevant. Also SWUX https://www.meetup.com/swux-meetup-com/ https://www.meetup.com/swux-meetup-com/ which is UX (so not technically tech), but has an excellent tech-adjacent community, and lot of members who work for tech companies even if they're not techies themselves.

Steve44 3y ago

There are also some in Tobermory on the island of Mull in Scotland. It's used as the setting for a BBC children's TV series called Balamory. https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/photo/coulorful-houses-in-tobermory-harbour-royalty-free-image/590486425 https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/photo/coulorful-houses-... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWBAINpDuvk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWBAINpDuvk

aquir 3y ago

Please don't embed Instragram posts into your article, just put the actual photo in with a link to the post! I am blocking all meta crap and the photos are not showing...I'm sure I'm not the only one who does that. Thanks!

CalRobert 3y ago

Unfortunately planning rules are such that houses are all supposed to look the same as others around them (and for the most part, kinda ugly)

hcrisp 3y ago

The island town of Burano, Italy, is another place known for colorful houses. They were originally said to help sailors at sea, but they are now protected by law and to change the color you must apply to the government for approval. https://www.untoldmorsels.com/burano-venice-colorful-houses-in-italy/ https://www.untoldmorsels.com/burano-venice-colorful-houses-...