For Natalie’s weekend coffee share I am inviting you to join me for a drink in Santiago’s next to Bristol bus station. From the outside it looks like a normal coffee shop but the name is a clue. Santiago is Latin for St. James and as well as serving some of the best value food and coffee in central Bristol the cafe is hiding something unexpected behind its plate glass windows.

Step through the door and at the back you have direct access to St. James Priory which dates back to 1129. It is said to be the oldest building in Bristol still in use for its original purpose.

St. James was founded as a Benedictine priory by Robert Earl of Gloucester the illegitimate grandson of Henry 1st and has been used as a place of worship for almost 900 years. The Benedictines have always helped the poor and sick and some of the profits from the cafe help to fund a nearby hostel for recovering drug addicts.

I like a series of modern stained glass panels at the side of the church made using Bristol blue glass which represent the healing process.

The annual St. James fair was for centuries a highlight of the social and business calendar for Bristol. It was held during Pentecost, seven weeks after Easter. This was for the sole benefit of St. James’s priory. The Priory charged rent on the trader’s stalls and this was their main source of income.

The origins of Kingsdown

The priory also owned a lot of land and soldiers from the King’s garrison in Bristol used to graze and exercise their horses on the fields above. This is thought to be the origin of the name Kingsdown.

Like many other religious establishments, the monks were forced to surrender Kingsdown to Henry VIII in 1541. During the civil war Prince Rupert built a 13-gun fort on what is now Freemantle Square. In 1667 Kingsdown was sold to Henry Dighton a brewer and his descendants gradually sold parcels of land off for development.

Kingsdown the vertical suburb

The architectural critic Ian Nain described Kingsdown as England’s only vertical suburb adding that nowhere else is there an 18th century suburb apparently hanging in mid-air over a big city. It is certainly steep I worked for three years in Bristol maternity hospital which is near the top of St. Michael’s hill, and I can confirm it is not a fun hill to walk up when you are late for work. I also remember climbing it two weeks before giving birth to twins to attend an antenatal appointment and am still not sure how I did it.

In the 18th century the steepness of the hill attracted Bristol merchants who wanted to be close to the docks but away from the smells and filth of the town itself. It is said to be one of the first planned suburbs with roads laid out in a grid pattern. High Kingsdown is still airy and has magnificent views over east Bristol. When we were there on Monday, we could see Kelston round hill eight miles away. Lower Kingsdown has been largely redeveloped with the area used by the Bristol Royal infirmary and for social housing.

One of the tower blocks was recently used by the Bristol based T.V. series the outlaws for the home of local drug barons. Luckily high Kingsdown has been listed as a conservation area after a long fight by local residents.

Street art

It would not be Bristol without some street art to share. Kingsdown was largely rural until the 18th century. Like any big city Bristol was ringed by dairy farms and the blue plaque on this house explains that it used to be a dairy farm. The owner who grew up on a farm liked the history of her house and commissioned the mural from a local artist.

Here are two more of my favourite pieces outside Kingsdown hospitals. The front wall of the Bristol eye hospital incorporates a tactile brick mural. The lollipops are outside the children’s hospital

I have added this post to Natalie’s weekend coffee share link up.