Horfield guidebook

Horfield’s big claim to fame is that one of Hollywood’s greatest actors, Cary Grant, was born there. Born Archibald Leach in 1904, he spent his childhood in Horfield before moving to America where he became famous.

Horfield is clustered around Filton Road, Kellaway Avenue and Gloucester Road, allowing for easy access to the scores of independent shops, cafes and pubs along the busy Gloucester Road.

Horfield is home to the Memorial Stadium, which was built in 1921 for Bristol Rugby Club in memory of the rugby union players of the city who died in World War I.

It was rededicated to also commemorate the dead of World War II, and is now the home of both Bristol Rugby Club and Bristol Rovers Football Club, who moved into the ground in 1996 and now own it. The ground is due to be rebuilt as a 18,000-all-seater stadium by 2010.

Further down the Gloucester Road in Bishopston is the County Ground, headquarters of Gloucestershire County Cricket Club, which regularly hosts one-day internationals.

If you enjoy a breath of fresh air or walking the dog, Horfield Common is the perfect place to get out and about – and the views over Bristol are excellent.

Property In Horfield

Taking the suburb as a whole, house prices in Horfield are below the Bristol average but this is misleading, as the area has something of a split personality.

Parts of it, such as the border with Bishopston and the Kellaway Avenue side of Horfield, are very popular with families attracted by large period homes at considerably lower prices than you would pay for a similar property in Redland or Henleaze.

The area between Gloucester Road and Muller Road, with its period terraced houses and cottages, is also proving extremely attractive to first-time buyers.

Upper Horfield, however, has a completely different housing market.  The Upper Horfield Estate was built in 1926 and was one of the first council estates in the country built following WWI.

However, in the 1980s, the 600-plus houses were discovered to be suffering from severe damp and "concrete cancer".  Eventually the council decided that the only solution was a complete rebuild.

The rebuilt estate is the biggest mixed tenure housing project in the Bristol area and the largest new home zone in the UK.  Construction is almost finished with the final phase due for completion in late 2008/2009.

It comprises well over 500 homes for rent and sale, mostly two bedroom apartments or three-bed townhouses, as well as hundreds of new homes which will be rented to people who previously lived on the estate and those on the city council waiting list.

Elsewhere in the Horfield area there are other new-build developments, such as Rowling Gate which comprises two- and three-bed townhouses and two-bed apartments, and the new houses and flats in College Mews, Ashley Down Road.

On Gloucester Road, between Radnor Road and Thornleigh Road, there is a prominent recent development of 21 one- and two-bedroom flats, maisonettes, duplex apartments and townhouses.

Surrounding Areas

1. Lockleaze

Neighbouring Lockleaze consists of predominantly 1930s housing to the west side, and to the east it is primarily post-war, privately owned homes with some council properties.

The regeneration programme in this area is bringing big changes to the property market, with redevelopment taking place at the former Hewlett Packard site, and defective Woolaway homes being replaced by the council.

2. Ashley Down

At the other end of the area, Ashley Down is made up of large Victorian bay-fronted stone-faced villas and, in some cases, quite stately period houses.

A number of properties here have been converted into flats and are let to students at the local college.

However, this increasingly fashionable area is also becoming a favourite with families, first-time buyers and professional couples, possibly because of its proximity to property hotspots like Bishopston, Montpelier, St Andrews and St Werbughs.

The new Minerva development, comprising 67 luxury apartments in a large converted 18th century former Grade II listed building, is proving extremely popular.

LIVING IN HORFIELD

Transport

Road: The A38 Gloucester Road North will take you up to Aztec West and junction 16 of the M5 motorway, while going south down Gloucester Road leads to the centre of Bristol.

The B4469 Muller Road leads to junction two of the M32 motorway. Horfield is also well-served by public transport, with the number 74, 76, 77 and 99 buses venturing up Gloucester Road.

Train: Filton Abbey Wood train station is about five minutes drive away.

Air: Bristol International Airport is about 30 minutes drive away, south west of Bristol, down the A38 or the A370.

Shopping and entertainment

Horfield has an excellent selection of pubs, including The Wellington, which was CAMRA joint winner of Pub of the Year for 2005, and the Inn on the Green, the CAMRA Pub of the Year winner for 2006.

Gloucester Road itself is chock-full of good restaurants, bars and pubs, from the Bristol Flyer and The Anchor to the Robin Hood Retreat and the Tinto Lounge.

Gloucester Road is one of the best shopping streets in Bristol for independent traders, and Kellaway Avenue also has a dive shop and a surf shop.

For groceries there is a large Tesco supermarket on Kellaway Avenue opposite Horfield Common.

Sports & Leisure 
 

Horfield leisure centre, just off Dorian Road, is a council-run facility that was revamped in 2005. It now has a 25-metre swimming pool, a new gym, a sports hall and facilities for aerobics classes.

Horfield Common is split into a number of different parks, a number of which have playgrounds for children.

Next to the Tesco supermarket on Kellaway Avenue are the Golden Hill sports facilities. These are home to the YMCA Cricket Club, where Wally Hammond used to play, and there is also an all-weather hockey and football pitch there.

Opposite Golden Hill on Horfield Common is the Ardagh sport facility, where there are tennis courts and a bowling green.

If you would rather watch sport than play it, the Memorial Stadium in Horfield is home to Bristol Rugby Club and Bristol Rovers Football Club, while in Bishopston there is the County Ground, the home of Gloucestershire County Cricket Club.