The fountains were removed earlier this year but the whole job isn’t finished yet
Black tarmac at the Centre where the fountains were(Image: Alex Seabrook )
Artists will paint over the black tarmac where the fountains used to be in Bristol city centre this September. The faulty fountains in the Centre were removed earlier this year and contractors paved over the area with black tarmac, but there are still plans to come back and finish the job.
The plans include a large piece of artwork covering the ground, similar to one in the Old City on Clare Street. This will be jointly funded by the business improvement district and Bristol City Council.
Work to remove the fountains began in February, after they had been broken for several years and were deemed too hard to fix. New details of when the artwork will be painted were revealed in a written answer to a question ahead of a member forum meeting on Tuesday, July 8.
The statement said: “The black tarmac surface was chosen as the most cost effective and is not the final surface as it is providing the base surface for the legacy project public artwork painting. This would not be suitable on a paved surface.
“The City Centre BID is funding the Artwork Commission and Artists. The artwork implementation and painting is funded by BCC Harbour Estates, and BCC Culture revenue budget. The painting is being delivered by local Bristol Upfest in September.”
The street food market at the Centre(Image: Alex Seabrook )
Removing the fountains means there is more space for pedestrians and market stalls in the area. Large trees were chopped down, as they had outgrown their planters with dangerous cracks appearing. Smaller trees have been planted to replace them, which better fit the containers.
The bike lane running parallel to where the fountains were has recently been upgraded, with the paving stones replaced with black tarmac. Tiny bicycle symbols were replaced with much larger ones, making it clearer that the bike lane is for cyclists and not for pedestrians. Further up the Centre, contractors are still working to upgrade the bike lane in the same way.
The fountains were first installed at the start of the millennium, and the water was stored underground in tankers that are hard to reach. As health and safety practices improved, maintenance and access became harder without taking safety risks. They used to take up a vast amount of space in a busy thoroughfare, reducing space for people to walk through.