Seven Hills

Many cities claim to be built on Seven Hills and it is difficult to gauge at times whether they really are, or whether the claim is more a desire to be close to what was once the greatest of cities - Rome.

With Bristol, although excruciatingly hilly, it feels that this claim is the latter. A tell-tale sign being the names given to the two founding brothers, carved in stone onto the city wall on Bristol’s oldest surviving gate. Brennus and Bellius sound strikingly similar to Romulus and Remus the mythological founding brothers of Rome.

 

Myth making lies at the heart of the city’s history, whether it’s this dubiously consequential story, or in later generations when the cities high and mighty began exploiting the trade in African slaves. Bristol played a pivotal role in the slave trade and owes much of its wealth to this dark somewhat murky. The still recent toppling of Edward Colston’s statue by Black Lives Matter protesters on the 7th June 2020 called into question why this man has been allowed to be remembered as a philanthropist with schools and buildings around the city named after him. No doubt helped along by the Merchant Venturers, a powerful and secretive group that have been instrumental in creating the Colston myth.

 

The making of myths continues today, and it continues to drive people towards Bristol. Seduced by a perfect lifestyle that revolves around the Harbourside (with a view of Brunel’s iconic suspension bridge), or the historic old town which is what remains from a rich and troubled history. The city is continually nominated as one of the most liveable cities in the UK, it attracts people in their droves, driving up house prices and changing the city beyond recognition - for good and for bad. However, go beyond the hills and it is a different story, where housing estates have their public amenities cut and Bristolians watch on as the developers line their pockets. Having grown up on the edge of the city, I have watched the friction between these two worlds, between a prosperous centre and the disregarded fringes. This is a story which is of course not unique to Bristol, like many cities it is divided between the haves and have-nots, between the denizens and the gentrifiers. Seven Hills explores all the above, through adolescent youths on the fringes of the city, to the dark historical reminders dotted through the city centre.

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Thrown Stones At God / Moses McKenzie

(accompanying essay)