Kiran Dhami

Nearly a year after the main play equipment at Bellevue Road Park was removed on safety grounds, parents say they are still waiting for Bristol City Council to deliver on its promise to restore the much-loved Easton playground. The climbing frame was taken away in September 2025 with no prior warning, prompting a community campaign and a petition that attracted almost 1,000 signatures calling for investment in the park.

On a wet and windy Saturday in St George, the former Bethesda Methodist Church-owned Old Sunday School building on Church Road (also known as The Spark Space) was a hive of activity. There were cakes, tea and hot food on sale, children having their faces painted, Lego strewn around, and a steady stream of people popping in, picking up leaflets to find out what’s going on and having a chat.

On a hot May morning, the women-only gym at Easton Leisure Centre feels like a calm oasis. Free from the usual high-performance tension that often hangs in the air in many mixed gyms, women are quietly focused on their workouts. In recent years, public debate around women-only spaces has focused largely on questions about access for trans women. Safety has often been the dominant frame: who poses a threat to whom, and in which direction.