St James Barton Roundabout

A huge roundabout in the city centre linking Stokes Croft, Broadmead and leading on either side to Kingsdown and St Pauls, it is often traffic clogged on the top, and filled with unsavoury characters down below.
I’m not a fan of walking under it late and night and generally try to avoid it. There’s a seedy, unsafe feeling to the underpass. By day it’s filled with homeless people, Big Issue sellers, suited and booted commuters along with the occasional busker to brighten up the proceedings.

Possibly the biggest open underpass I’ve ever seen. Situated underneath a six lane carriageway, it’s got at least four entrances/​exits. It basically connects Stokes Croft with the road to the M32, the city centre and the coach station. On a sunny day the open space in the middle is full of jovial (well, as jovial as they can be) rough sleepers. There’s also a woman who mans a foldaway table with food and drink for the homeless folk, and occasionally someone collecting money for the venture. There are some public toilets there but they’re probably best avoided, last year a young man got mugged and sexually assaulted in there at about 3pm in the afternoon. Not nice at all. One of the exits comes out at Debenhams and they have toilets you could use if desperate. There are often rough sleepers with dogs in the undercover sections. And if you’re lucky, the odd busker.

St James Barton Roundabout, or «The Bear Pit» as it is affectionately (or not) known is the link between Broadmead (Debenhams) and Stokes Croft. The subway is a major commuter route, so don’t be surprised to find it pretty rammed around rush hour. There are often buskers and Big Issue sellers in the subways, as well as a guy who sells a range of magazines for half the RRP — I don’t know where he gets them and I’ve never been inclined to ask. At weekends you’ll likely pass a makeshift soup kitchen or a group of extremist Christians with a megaphone trying their best to save the souls of the good people of Bristol. The Bear Pit is also home to a set of public toilets, though you’d have to be a braver man than I to consider using them.