The UK housing market has transformed since the 1970s when Sui’s dad bought a four-bedroom house on Ashley Road. “My dad bought this house for £900 in 1970,” explains Sui who said that his father could just about afford to own his own home while working as a bus driver at the time.
Sui has seen many changes in St Pauls over the years and the change in house prices is definitely one of them. Properties in St Pauls are now being sold for £500,000, marketed by estate agents as an investment.
One house currently on the market in Sussex Place is said to have an earning potential of £54,000 a year for any potential buy-to-let landlord. Meanwhile the community in St Pauls is coming together with the hope that it can influence the decisions made by developers looking to cash in on the neighbourhood just metres away from Cabot Circus.
READ MORE: St Pauls Carnival 2023 announces full return to mark Windrush and Bristol's Bus Boycott
Glen’s Kitchen at St Pauls Learning Centre is a popular meeting place for those wanting to make change in the community. While some enjoy a Jamaican lunch, others just sit and chat. Bridging Histories is just one of the groups who regularly meet at the space and are part of a new initiative to celebrate the “historic heart of Bristol’s African Caribbean community” and set up a Neighbourhood Forum to help future developments in the area benefit local people.
“We are working on six different projects and one is the changemaker project where we are talking to residents, businesses and stakeholders about what they want to see in the area,” said George, who is participating in the project alongside musicians and poets Wizdxm and Tacaveli.
Khalil Abdi, a youth worker who has lived in St Pauls for more than 20 years, likes to come to the community space to discuss the latest projects of the youth organisation he works for. Khalil, who works predominantly with young people from East African backgrounds, doesn’t believe that the investment and development in St Pauls has been beneficial to the young people growing up in council housing in the area.
He fears that the changes in the demographic of the area is contributing to a loss of the rich Jamaican culture he experienced when he first moved to the area. “St Pauls is very multicultural, very friendly and I’ve never had any problems here.
“It’s one of the best places I’ve lived and back in the day the food was amazing but St Pauls is dying now. They are losing the African Caribbean culture, gentrification is killing St Pauls,” added Khalil.
This year, St Pauls Carnival will return for the first time since 2019 and alongside the usual festivities the event will coincide with two important anniversaries for the African Caribbean community in Bristol. This year marks the 75th anniversary of Windrush and 60th anniversary of the Bristol Bus Boycotts which has a special significance following the recent passing of one of the movement's leaders, Roy Hackett.
Lorna Miles (D'Angel) is looking forward to this year’s carnival and since she moved to St Pauls from Jamaica as a young woman she has always got involved, from selling food outside to receiving an award for her work as part of the organising committee in 2019. Having recently released her first single Hot Gyal Step Out a few months ago, she hopes to be able to perform on the main stage this year.
The single was recorded at the Yam and Banana studio in the Kuumbaa Centre in St Pauls by producer Uri Green. He had previously been performing in a reggae band before he moved to the area and collaborated with others to set up the studio almost a decade ago. Like Lorna, Uri hopes to perform this year at the Carnival this year with The Yam and Banana All Stars.
The carnival that began in 1968 has seen changes over the years with the 2015 withdrawal of Arts Council funding causing it to stop running for several years and marking an end to the Afrikan-Carribean Association organising the annual event. Since 2018, the carnival has been set up under a new committee and due to Covid restrictions, 2023 will be the third year the carnival has been run by the new organisation; St Pauls Carnival CIC.
Stephan Finlay moved to Bristol from London over 20 years ago was drawn to St Pauls and got involved in making costumes for the carnival while discovering his own musical talents for the first time. Stephen, who plays the drums in a band alongside a combination of paid and voluntary community and youth work, said that he had never thought about creating his own music before moving to St Pauls.
The area’s creativity is evident in the various murals, which includes the Seven Saints of St Pauls - a project completed in 2019 that celebrates iconic Black Bristolians. Residents like Sui have made their own contributions to the art in the area by painting portraits of his heroes on his front gate since the death of Mohammed Ali in 2016.
Sui, who is of South Asian heritage, remembers when St Pauls had quite a different reputation and his white girlfriends were forbidden by their parents from coming to his house. “There were a couple of girlfriends I had whose families weren’t happy with the area that I lived in,” said Sui.
The area has transformed from one which outsiders would avoid to a popular location with housing that is increasingly becoming unaffordable for anyone on a modest income. But Sui who has seen all the changes pass him by over the years, is unsure about which St Pauls he likes the most.
Having spent some time in more affluent parts of the city such as Clifton and Cotham, he definitely prefers St Pauls - and for Sui, it’s the sense of community and friendliness of the area that makes it special. He added: "The day after Mohammed Ali died in 2016 I was really sad and I did my first ever painting and left a pen out there, and people were writing tributes out on my gate. You wouldn’t get that in Clifton."
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