Bristol’s newest sit-down spot has been mocked for facing a brick wall – and there are plenty in my own town of York facing unlovely aspects. But sometimes we all just need a rest
A
bench in Bristol installed facing a brick wall has aroused local curiosity – why put it there? BBC West commented that it joined other perversely placed seating: “a bench in Shirehampton facing a derelict building … and one in Wedmore facing a hedge”. Bristol city council explained that when it plants a planned tree, the bench will provide a shady spot to rest on a steep hill, but promised to “review” the placement.
My first thought was that facing a brick wall could be meditative – I quite like staring at nothing – but my second was, “Surely York, where I live, is too beautiful to have benches with similarly terrible views?” Time for a benchmarking trip.
I swiftly realise no bench is at its best on a rainy February afternoon, not even ones overlooking glorious medieval architecture, and it doesn’t take me long to find some that aren’t ideally situated. Peasholme Green’s benches, arranged around a planter and themselves green (with algae), offer several extremely mid views. From one angle you can look along the road to a building site and an uncompromisingly 1950s telephone exchange building with a giant mast; from another you can stare at your own pasty face in a plate-glass office window. Heading further into the tourist heart of the city, I bypass several bellowing Vikings in Coppergate to find a bench facing a wall, albeit featuring Fenwick’s staff entrance and a public toilet.
