Filwood Broadway

Filwood Broadway is located at the heart of Knowle West and has historically played a central role in providing services for the local community. The Broadway cinema, once packed with movie-goers and later bingo players, now stands boarded up and empty. The community swimming pool with its diving boards and domed glass ceiling has been demolished, replaced with a concrete playing court. The library, community centre, children’s play area and shops continue to operate but the area has suffered as a result of the re-location of local industries and a lack of investment in the provision of services and infra-structure.

Originally built in the 1930’s, the area known as Knowle West faces new demands. [intlink id=”172″ type=”page”]A plan for its re-development[/intlink] is taking shape with much debate and consultation. This provides an opportune moment for the views of the local community to be voiced.

The idea behind the [intlink id=”2324″ type=”page”]Nlarge vs Filwood Broadway[/intlink] project, is to engage the young people South Bristol in the plans surrounding this re-development. Nlarge are a group of young photographers based at the Knowle West Media Centre that meet on a weekly basis to learn photographic skills alongside professional photographers.

It is the ambition of the Nlarge vs…. series to create a photographic archive of those areas scheduled for re-development within Knowle West. Alongside this archive and drawing inspiration from the Banksy vs Bristol City Museum exhibition, the project asks the young people to re-visualise their local area and to engage with the possibilities re-development could bring.

A strong sense of community activity and an increase in the provision of facilities for the area is communicated in their work so far. Nlarge hope to continue with this project into other areas of Knowle West such as Melvin Square, Northern Slopes and Novers Hill.

It is hoped that the work presented here is just the beginning of a longer term goal enabling community involvement in issues regarding the regeneration of the local environment that has a direct impact on their everyday lives.