Another drizzly, grey day…but inspired by that awesome engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel, visited the striking Clifton Suspension Bridge that he designed. It was completed in 1864 after decades of a funding deficit (and Isambard’s death in 1859) and as a memorial to him by other civil engineers in town. 412 metres across, the bridge is held by chains anchored 17 metres below the road. It spans a gorge that plummets 72 metres.
Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s unusual name comes from his civil engineer father, a Normandy refugee from the French Revolution and his mother, Sophia Kingdom. He was burnt, broken and buried under his constructions but nothing stopped Brunel. He built under rivers and through hills, creating the longest tunnels, the biggest bridges and the speediest ships the world had ever seen. This is the revolutionary Briton who built Britain.Walked up the hill to Clifton village and wandered around. A lovely shopping quarter with heaps of Georgian architecture; shops and boutiques selling jewellery, art, gifts, furniture, fashion good food and more. Keith Floyd’s first bistro in Princess Victori
a St is still there and under “new management”, what a gorgeous little building.
“Spice and Coffee” is a fab brekky and brunch spot – tuna melt and earl grey tea went down very well today. The “Quadrant” a lovely century old building, is now a wine bar. And there are little lane ways with gorgeous ‘secret garden’ doors buried into the high stone walls
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