The Green Way invites you to experience a colourful transformation that has emerged across community hubs and green spaces in St Pauls, Bristol. This two-year collaboration between The Architecture Centre, St Pauls Learning Centre, Nudge Group, St Pauls Adventure Playground, Talo and the local people of St Pauls, sees the creation of a new walking and cycling route through one of Bristol’s most urban communities. The route encourages pedestrians to take a less polluted route through St Pauls’: ‘The Green Way’ – in a time when engaging with green spaces and their value has never been so important.

Creative Co-Design and Collaborative Placemaking
The project started back in March 2019 with 12 months of community workshops and events, including street side engagement with young people along the Green Way route. The project invites communities to explore the route from St Agnes Park to Halston Drive and take in the murals and public realm improvements at  St Pauls Adventure Playground, St Pauls Learning Centre and the Halston Drive Community Room.

Local architect Shankari Raj from Nudge group worked with local people to think about how these spaces can be better connected through design. In a ‘Making it Work(shop) local communities joined forces with local architects, planners and urban designers to co-design ideas for meaningful public realm improvements to their local neighbourhood. This resulted in successful fundraising for the project around the collaborative idea of The Green Way.

Continuing the engagement with local communities the ‘What is Your Soul Food?’ digital campaign ran throughout the spring of 2020 and was a great opportunity for people to share recipes with neighbours in lockdown. The recipes submitted during the digital campaign have gone on to inspire permanent artworks on the Green Way painted by Graft, which reflect and celebrate the diversity and culinary heritage of the area and feature many of the ingredients from the recipes, including vine leaves, palms, banana leaves, hibiscus, chilli  peppers and sweet chestnuts.

Local People said: “It’s so brilliant, it’s totally transformed the area” , with 100% of those surveyed saying they were more likely to explore The Green Way route on foot or by bike in future.

This project connects community creativity with capital development and design, whilst celebrating the role of food in the district of St Pauls by encouraging local Bristolians to take pictures of the recipe murals and bring them to life in their own homes.

Project artists Graft are a husband and wife team founded on the principles of education, engagement, craft and sharing. Living just a stones throw away from St Pauls Learning Centre, winning the tender for The Green Way project presented a special opportunity to collaborate with local residents and transform their local neigbourhood through colour.

Helyn Gulley is a Bristol based signwriter. Helyn worked with Graft to incorporate the three winning recipes into the permanent murals at the three Green Way sites. Tara Miran’s Dolma recipe is featured at Halston Drive Community Room –

‘To have my Kurdish Dolma recipe as a permanent feature in the local community is a recognition of my culture. To have this Dolma recipe for all the community to see and share feels like an act of love and acknowledgement for my Kurdish roots. It is a celebration of the love for food amongst the different communities of St Pauls.’

Bristol poet Beth Calverley collaborated with local St Pauls’ residents Tara Miran, Glen Crooks and Amina Mahamoud to co-create poems inspired by their submitted recipes, heritage and memories.