It was painted by local residents over the weekend
The newly restored Rainbow Bridge off of Fairlawn Road Bristol, Wednesday 18 June 2025(Image: PAUL GILLIS / Reach PLC)
Bristol music legend Roni Size issued a heartfelt plea to the city’s young graffiti taggers to leave alone a much loved bridge, which has once again been restored to its bright and colourful rainbow state – but within hours it had been tagged.
The Mercury Music Prize winner, musician and DJ begged anyone contemplating spoiling the rainbow colours on the Fairfield Footbridge, which connects Montpelier to St Andrews, to ‘think of the children’, and paint the wall at one end of the bridge instead.
The bridge is known by many as the Rainbow Bridge, as it is regularly painted all the colours of the rainbow.
And local residents were out in numbers over the weekend (Sunday, June 15), with each household taking a shade of colour and a panel to repaint.
The mass paint in became a bit of a party, with as many as 30 different families taking part, and there was a barbeque and brass band for parts of the painting session, and Roni Size posting a video of the painting session over the weekend.
Each household was allocated their own separate panel to paint, and everyone got the job done in a day.
On Tuesday (June 17), Roni Size, who lives locally, posted another video urging the city’s taggers to leave the bridge alone, at least for the summer.
“Just understand that this bridge means a lot to young children, who cross this bridge every day and go to school or go to the park or coming home,” said Roni.
“You know, the community as well, around us, love this space. I think for the summer, I would urge all of you guys, if you’re gonna come and do anything, there’s some spare, extra pieces of the wall up at the top end,” he said.
“We want to hold on to this image here,” he said, showing the rainbow colours viewed from one end, “because it’s such a powerful image, and it means it so much. I know that someone’s going to come along and they’re gonna go over to one of these panels and they’re gonna do something.
Bristol music legend Roni Size urges graffiti taggers not to paint over the newly restored Rainbow Bridge in Montpelier(Image: Roni Size/Facebook)
“But I’m just asking, I’m just saying, look, you know what? Just think of the kids. Just think of the kids. Just think of the people in the community. I love this bridge. It’s where I grew up and it’s a bass trap for me. It’s where I can hear the music coming from St. Paul’s up, all the way up into St. Andrew’s and Montpelier, and you know, it looks so cool, just the way that it is. It’s just nice,” he added.
However, overnight last night, someone tagged ‘Jesus Loves’ at the blue end of the bridge, leaving Roni and the rest of the community in Montpelier hoping that would be it.
The Footbridge, which was built in 1904, celebrated its centenary in 2004 with the addition of the arches at either end of the bridge. The bridge is owned by Network Rail, and has not always been multi-coloured. Back in 2020 it was painted completely grey, and the reaction from locals was far from positive. They vowed to restore colour to the bridge in time for that summer.
Initially, Bristol City Council had decided to paint over the bridge as it had been targeted by taggers, which the authority said was an issue widespread in the area. But the council later said it would support local residents in restoring the bridge, which sits close to Montpelier Railway Station and Fairfield School and crosses the railway line between Fairlawn Road and Hurlingham Road, to its former glory.
The newly restored Rainbow Bridge off of Fairlawn Road Bristol, Wednesday 18 June 2025 where part of the bridge has already had new graffiti painted. (Image: PAUL GILLIS / Reach PLC)
The council said at the time: “We were asked by the local graffiti action group to tidy the bridge up after the beautiful rainbow had all but been destroyed by graffiti.
“As bridge owners, Network Rail sanctioned this work and a council crew carried out the painting in gun metal grey so a community repaint could take place should residents want one.
“Our community engagement team is already in discussion with residents about an art project which we will support in getting access to material and third party funding.”
The group were initially looking at finding an artist who would be willing to work with local schools to brainstorm ideas and create murals for the side of the bridge.
Following the grey repaint, the bridge was soon targeted by taggers once more, with the graffiti still visible right up until the colourful community repaint over the weekend.
Photos taken by BristolLive show the stunning rainbow paintwork of the locals involved, and it is hoped that by assigning households specific panels and colours to maintain, they can get a handle on tagging in the future to keep the bridge looking clean and bright for years to come.
A fan of a bridge in Bristol? Check out this walking tour that will take you to all of the 45 bridges in the city.
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