The Green Way: St Pauls

A co-design project that celebrates local heritage, creates outdoor spaces for communities to gather & enhances local enterprise 

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A Greener Route Through St Pauls

One of Bristol’s most urban communities, St Pauls is known for its unique mix of cultures.  

As major thoroughfare for vehicles in the city, pollution is increasingly becoming a problem for the residents of St Pauls. The Green Way was a two-year collaborative placemaking project that created a new walking & cycling route through St Pauls, whilst improving the public realm at three key sites en-route.

Co-designed with artists, landscape designers, architects, school children & local people, this vibrant project transformed community infrastructure.  

The Green Way connects three community hubs with their surrounding green spaces, creating places to sit, eat & connect. Colourful new murals adding a vibrant identity to the public realm. As a result of the transformation, Glen’s Cafe featured on BBC Two Remarkable Places to Eat.

Co-Designing The Green Way

Design West kicked off the project commissioning young people to survey local residents on the improvements they’d like to see. Combined with socio demographic data & health stats, the consultation set the brief for a series of interdisciplinary co-design workshops between local communities, designers, creatives, architects, police, planners, schools & councillors.

The collaborative design process of The Green Way allowed residents to contribute to shaping their public spaces based on how they’d like to use them. 

The Green Way Vision drew out the need for cycling infrastructure, more lighting, regeneration of community enterprises & places to sit outside & share food. Community cohesion was built using the theme of world food to celebrate the different cultures resident in St Pauls. Design West secured the investment needed to make the collaborative vision to reality.    

During lockdown in Spring 2020 an inspired digital campaign, ‘What is Your Soul Food’ shaped the final murals. >100 local people shared their favourite family recipes online, three being picked for the final murals along the The Green Way, brought to life by project artists, GRAFT.  

Co-design ran through the veins of The Green Way. Not content with crowdsourced recipes, GRAFT ran digital street art tutorials & lockdown colouring competitions with Cabot Primary school, using the young people’s ideas in the final commissions.  Students from UWE Bristol helped with the final install at St Pauls Learning Centre.

Completed in October 2020, The Green Way creates a sense of civic pride & ownership in St Pauls & is a destination for locals and visitors to the area.

Producer Georgina Bolton, Architect Shankari Raj, Director Dr Anna Rutherford

The impacts of the Green Way Project on our centre & the Community Cafe are all encompassing.

Gem Burgoyne, Manager, St Pauls Learning Centre