The Albert Park Camel was painted back in the 1990s
The original Where’s My Camel artwork on Albert Park, taken in May 1998(Image: Cecilia Thirlway)
It is probably one of the oldest and most loved works of street art in Bristol, and now a new photo has been unearthed to show what the Albert Park Camel originally looked like.
Painted back in the 1990s, the camel has evolved over the years and become a beloved landmark on the corner of City Road and Ashley Road, marking the spot where St Pauls becomes Montpelier.
Last September, Bristol Live marked what could well have been the 30th anniversary of the Albert Park Camel with a photogallery telling its unlikely story.
The article explained how the camel was such a well-known feature of the urban landscape that people who lived nearby used it as a description of where they lived when giving directions or telling taxi drivers.
The artwork, for anyone who has never seen it before, is on a low garden wall behind the Albert Park road sign. It’s a camel who is always saying something – its words visible with a speech bubble drifting away behind it.
Every couple of years or so, a group of Bristol street artists get together to repaint it, either giving it a full makeover or a clean up and touch up, and often they will change what the camel is saying.
Last year’s Bristol Live article reported that a history of the Albert Park Camel had been pulled together by Bob Lawson, for a feature for St Paul’s local community magazine Vocalise. He tracked down the man who is largely responsible for the legend and told the story of the Albert Park Camel for the first time.
“Apparently, after a free party at the much-missed Blue Mountain Club, people took themselves to Clevedon to go to the beach,” wrote Bob. “Where, at around 5am, a person was spotted leading a camel down the beach. The stencil was made and sprayed.”
One local resident even had names for the original camel artists – Skip and Tony. “It was Skip and Tony who did the original ‘where’s me camel’, which was just a couple of humps behind the road sign and the words. Later proper artists came along and expanded the concept,” he said.
By 2001, it was tagged, fading and a bit grubby, but it was well-loved already. It was at this point that the camel’s future was assured – thanks to a local graffiti artist called FEEK, one of the most prominent and creative in the city through the 90s and since.
He saw the wall and its prominent location, and wanted to paint it. He told Bob and Vocalise how he approached the occupants of the house to ask if that would be ok, and they said yes, as long as he didn’t paint over the little stencil camel.
READ MORE: The story of the Albert Park Camel at 30 – one of Bristol’s oldest and most loved characters
But there was one thing missing from the stories of the origins of this long-standing work of street art. – an image of the very first incarnation of the quirky artwork, dating back into the 1990s, long before cameras on phones, the internet and social media, and long before the work was made more permanent by FEEK in the early 2000s.
If a picture did exist, it would be unearthed from the analogue world – a real, printed photo from an album or a wallet of photos people had returned from the chemists.
And so it was that Cecilia Thirlway, who used to live nearby, had a search and discovered that her hazy memory of taking a photo of the camel more than 25 years ago was right, and she found the picture in question. In fact, she’d taken two – one from across the road and another more of a close up.
“I commented on there saying I had a picture of the original red line drawing and that I would dig it out sometime,” she told Bristol Live. “I finally got round to it and discovered that I was right about it being a red line drawing, but also that I am a truly rubbish photographer,” she joked.
The original Where’s My Camel artwork on Albert Park, taken in May 1998(Image: Cecilia Thirlway)
In truth, the images are not the greatest. Taken on a bright, sunny day, the original camel itself is obscured by the shadow of a tree, but unmistakably, the artwork is the original painted after that strange encounter with a camel on Clevedon beach in around 1994 or 1995.
“I’m not sure of the date, but I lived in Albert Park from the summer of 1996 to the end of 1998,” said Cecilia. “One of the pics says May 1998 on the back, so that seems about right,” she added.
The camel normally gets a bit of a touch up or a new line to say before Carnival, and local residents said they love it.
“It’s always been one of my favourites,” said one resident who lived on Albert Park in the 80s and 90s and remembered the original going up. “I deeply appreciate its endurance,” she added.
“I live on West Grove,” added another local resident. “And I like to test taxi drivers’ knowledge by just asking to be dropped off at the Camel. I have about a ten per cent success rate as regards not having to explain further,” he added.