“Experiencing St.

John’s church as modern Bristolians” - Bella Barton and Adriana

Montecinos Caprile

For our podcast we want to be looking at the Church of St John’s a medieval Church
located perpendicular to broad street, right in the heart of Bristol City Center. It is a Grade
I level building, a protected and precious heritage site for the city and a common tourist
spot as it is the only remaining church that was once part of the old city walls.

What captivated us the most is how the church is made so you can pass through it,
modelled by the necessity of city life and making it so that this walk is one full colourful
graffiti. The place becomes not only a site for tourist, but also an everyday enjoyable
experience for Bristolians (see annexes).

That, will be the main focus of our podcast, to see and analyse how people interact and
experience the church and its surroundings full of colourful street art and cute cafes. For
this we think is necessary to divide our search in three main questions:

1. What is the historical and symbolic importance of St. John´s church for the
city of Bristol?
2. How is the sight and walk of the church experienced by modern
passersby?
3. Does the juxtaposition of modern art (street art/graffiti) and more classical
art (architecture, tinted glass) diminishes, compliments or does it enhance one
another?

We believe that our first question needs a more historical approach, so we have been
looking at heritage websites like National Churches Trust
(https://www.nationalchurchestrust.org/church/st-john-wall-bristol) and Churches
Conservation Trust (https://www.visitchurches.org.uk/visit/church-listing/st-john-on-the-
wall-bristol.html) as well as academic publications, like the articles we read in the third
week about Squares, mostly the parts regarding the use of space, its planning and making.
For our second question, we think it is a better approach to use testimonies, to make a
couple of interviews on site and make that guide how we understand the experience of
Bristolians. As well as noting down how we ourselves feel in this space. We also think that
google maps and TripAdvisor reviews can help us see from a more touristy point of view
how this place is lived. Finally for our third question we want to put in use what we have
learnt this fourth week about graffiti and street art, as well as researching more about
heritage care and the place of historical buildings in modern cities. We have yet to do this
reading as we are just beginning with the historical approach.