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Why are there so many colourful houses in Bristol?

secretbristol.com

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Re: Why are there so many colourful houses in Bristol?

#81

Post by nicoburns »

archydeb wrote: post #65

I've just moved back to Bristol (grew up here) and delighted to see this on HN. Since this post is likely to be a good honeypot: can anybody recommend any good tech meetups here? I run an energy tech company and looking to meet like-minded folk

SWMobile https://www.meetup.com/swmobile/ is good if relevant.

Also SWUX https://www.meetup.com/swux-meetup-com/ which is UX (so not technically tech), but has an excellent tech-adjacent community, and lot of members who work for tech companies even if they're not techies themselves.

Re: Why are there so many colourful houses in Bristol?

#82

Post by buster3000 »

looping8 wrote: post #62
hansjorg wrote: post #8

In Greenland they had a system to encode what purpose a building had. For example, if you were in a medical emergency, you would look for a yellow building. > Red buildings signified churches, schools, teachers’ or ministers’ houses. Yellow colours were assigned to hospitals, doctors, and health care personnel. Green was at first the symbol for radio communication and later became the colour of telecommunications. Th…

Is there a reason why they used those specific colors? I don't understand why a hospital would be yellow or a police station would be black by default. My guess would be white and blue, respectively.

Easier for a heli-pilot to find when transporting a patient?

Re: Why are there so many colourful houses in Bristol?

#83

Post by simonbarker87 »

otteromkram wrote: post #74
simonbarker87 wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the parent commenter is British then the use of “it’s not a crime” is an idiom and usually not to be taken literally. Basically a short hand for “not a big deal, shouldn’t have a ramifications for them”.

How am I supposed to know the parent commenter's nationality? The parent comment also opined on a scenario in which the person's actions (paint, then ask permission) landed them an official letter and threat of fine, which seems like "a big deal" to some people.

You’re not supposed to know that - I’m just guessing by the use of that phrase tbh. I was just trying to be helpful and explain a cultural difference that might explain the use of a word that hadn’t been used before.

Re: Why are there so many colourful houses in Bristol?

#85

Post by pbhjpbhj »

fredley wrote: post #55

Bristolian here (nice to see others here too!) Painting houses like this is quite common in Wales, near the sea particularly. See places like Tenby. Bristol being very close to Wales means it does have more cultural crossover than the rest of the UK, I wonder if that has anything to do with it.

Tobermory, on Mull in Scotland, is a well known (UK) example of colourful houses - it is shoreside too. It's probably that in most tightly packed housing there's no vista, only on the shore does that become possible and so the use of colour enhances the visual amenity.

Who did it first?

Re: Why are there so many colourful houses in Bristol?

#86

Post by sambeau »

fredley wrote: post #55

Bristolian here (nice to see others here too!) Painting houses like this is quite common in Wales, near the sea particularly. See places like Tenby. Bristol being very close to Wales means it does have more cultural crossover than the rest of the UK, I wonder if that has anything to do with it.

And Brighton, especially Hanover, Devon, Cornwall, Norwich, Lavenham, even Notting Hill in London.

Scotland has Portree and Tobermory.

Ireland has loads of painted rows like this.

Re: Why are there so many colourful houses in Bristol?

#87

Post by sambeau »

pbhjpbhj wrote: post #85
fredley wrote: post #55

Bristolian here (nice to see others here too!) Painting houses like this is quite common in Wales, near the sea particularly. See places like Tenby. Bristol being very close to Wales means it does have more cultural crossover than the rest of the UK, I wonder if that has anything to do with it.

Tobermory, on Mull in Scotland, is a well known (UK) example of colourful houses - it is shoreside too. It's probably that in most tightly packed housing there's no vista, only on the shore does that become possible and so the use of colour enhances the visual amenity. Who did it first?

The romans, I suspect.

Re: Why are there so many colourful houses in Bristol?

#88

Post by sambeau »

sambeau wrote: post #87
pbhjpbhj wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tobermory, on Mull in Scotland, is a well known (UK) example of colourful houses - it is shoreside too. It's probably that in most tightly packed housing there's no vista, only on the shore does that become possible and so the use of colour enhances the visual amenity. Who did it first?

The romans, I suspect.

By which I mean, the Mediterranean coast has loads of colourful seaside towns The Amalfi coast (see Vernazza for an amazing example, or the other four Cinque Terre, or Pixar's Luca for a well-observed only slightly exaggerated version), Menton in France is very colourful, Venice has very colourful bits…

Roman houses, much like their now-white statues, were very colourful, so I suspect they spread their love of coloured plaster wherever they settled. Though I am not an historian (IANAH).

Re: Why are there so many colourful houses in Bristol?

#90

Post by pezezin »

hsbauauvhabzb wrote: post #79
pezezin wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I live in Japan and over here pretty much every small city and town is like you describe. But the saddest thing is that even brand new houses are incredibly ugly. Like seriously, who in their sane mind paints a house in black? As you say, a bit of color would not fix the underlying problems, but it would make life a bit more enjoyable.

I believe in Sydney Australia a dark roofs are not legal due to the environmental factors of increased air conditioning https://amp.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/apr/09/plan-...

I am not sure how the law is in my home country, Spain, but being a hot country, nobody is so stupid as to build a black house. Which is another funny thing, Japan is also a very hot country.
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