• Short Summary

    A visit to the first multi-storey car park in the country - they haven't changed much.

  • Description

    L/S and M/S of exterior of a multi-storey car park in Bristol, Avon; traffic is seen passing by. Commentator tells us this is the first of it's kind in the country.

    A grey car, a Riley One Point Five, turns into the car park and stops at a booth where a helpful man in a white coat puts a ticket under the windscreen wiper, and hands one to the driver; another man stands in the booth.

    M/S inside the car park (very dark) as the car drives round what the commentator calls "the unbroken curved roadway". He goes on to enlighten us thus: "The idea is that the car goes up the gradient and the driver down again by lift". Our driver finds a space and gets out of his car.

    L/Ss of the Bristol skyline from the car park edge; commentator says "It's almost worth coming to the top just for the view".

    M/S of a man walking back to his car and driving off. M/S from inside his car as he drives down the circular exit route at a tremendous speed (I feel quite giddy - I think this sequence has been speeded up!). He hands his ticket to the man in white at the booth (no money is seen changing hands!) and zooms off onto the road, narrowly avoiding a pedestrian; fade out.

    I am reliably informed by Howard at Pathe that this carbuncle car park still exists, and can be found next to the bus station in Bristol.

    Note: there is a newspaper article with photo on file about this modern new car park.

    Cuts exist - see separate record.

  • Tags

  • Data

    Film ID:
    131.05
    Media URN:
    1654
    Group:
    Colour pictorials
    Archive:
    British Pathé
    Issue Date:
    27/02/1961
    Sound:
    sound
    HD Format:
    Available on request
    Stock:
    Colour
    Duration:
    00:01:26:00
    Time in/Out:
    01:23:51:00 / 01:25:17:00
    Canister:
    CP 322

Comments (2)

  1. Unknown user says

    This building still seems to exist - its viewable on Google maps at 5 Rupert Street, Bristol.

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  2. afoyle says

    This is not by a long way the first multi-storey car park in Britain - Brewer Street in Soho was built c. 1929 and there may be earlier ones.

    The reference to this being "the first of its kind" refers to the particular design - it is a continuous spiral ramp where all the cars park side on at the outer edge, while cars go up and down on the inner side. There are no flat parking decks in the usual way. I guess it wasn't repeated much because at busy times there's a lot of opportunity for bumps as drivers reverse out of their spaces and cross the upward traffic to join the downward flow.

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