Love Bristol, Love Broadmead
Love Bristol, Love Broadmead was a Bristol BID led partnership programme delivering new ways to connect with the city's shopping district
Date
March - August 2026
Broadmead is right at the heart of our city centre – a place to shop, work and meet every day. Like many high streets, however, it has faced challenges. While long-term regeneration plans progress, the everyday experience of the area still matters.
Running from March until August 2026, Love Bristol, Love Broadmead was an extensive programme led by Bristol BID in partnership with the local business community. The objective was to celebrate Broadmead, revitalise the streets, strengthen existing partnerships and bring people together. Because if you love a place, you look after it.
Big Broadmead Spring Clean
Bristol BID, in partnership with Bristol Waste, began the programme by inviting businesses, community groups, schools and city partners to take part in a volunteer-led week of action, creating immediate, visible improvements to the Broadmead area, accompanied by music, dancing and a welcoming, all-inclusive atmosphere.
From 23-29 March, 250 volunteers aged between 3 and 87 amassed 500+ hours of cleaning street furniture, removing stickers, painting 52 bins and railings, collecting 113 bags of litter, and tidying Broadmead planters. The Spring Clean drew positive feedback from passersby and volunteers alike, shifting perceptions of Broadmead and addressing isolation, connection, and more.
Care and Repair Festival
Next came Care & Repair Festival, a family-friendly programme of free activities that brought together creativity, wellbeing and community. The festival invited people of all ages to get involved in making, mending and learning new skills.
This included workshops, wellbeing sessions, community volunteering and talks, encouraging people to learn new skills, reuse everyday items and connect with others. From 7-19 April, 27 free events were delivered across Sparks, John Wesley’s New Room and various Broadmead public spaces, creating new opportunities to engage with Broadmead.
Blossoming Broadmead
The next chapter was Blossoming: a month of collaboration with free performances, creative takeovers and community activity. In partnership with Compass Presents and Bristol City Council, ‘A Love Letter To Broadmead’ animated two empty units in The Galleries with youth-led creative activity, consulting 99 young people on their future vision for Bristol in the process.
Hammerson also commissioned a series of UPFEST artworks that were installed on Quakers Art Lane, with Bristol BID commissioning a report and recommendations on public art from the world-famous street art specialists.
Global Broadmead
From 1-26 June, Global Broadmead celebrated the area’s international identity and shone a spotlight on the countries, cultures, and people that shape the city’s shopping district. The programme included collaborative projects with Sparks Bristol on their International Culture Festival, St George’s Bristol on International Make Music Day, and Festival of Nature 2026.
This chapter also spotlighted Broadmead’s international restaurants and businesses through an interactive map and social media series, ‘Broadmead Bites’. The series featured local business owners celebrating how international businesses shape Broadmead’s identity through stories of their beginnings and was well received, garnering 41,553 views.
Playful Broadmead
As part of the project’s final chapter, Bristol BID facilitated the creation of a miniature world hidden across Broadmead’s shopfronts, walls, and public spaces. Created by independent creative businesses, schoolchildren, professional artists and hobbyists, the ‘Urban Fairy Doors’ are permanent and offer a glimpse into a hidden fairy world, inviting families to look closer and explore their surroundings in a new way.
‘Glass and Colour Works’ is a dazzling, playful artwork created by architectural glass artist Edward Rhys Jones in collaboration with Upfest and inspired by the area’s heritage. Situated above the Broadmead entrance of The Galleries, it is a legacy piece for the Love Bristol, Love Broadmead campaign and will remain until the shopping centre’s redevelopment.
Legacy
Across six months, the Love Bristol, Love Broadmead campaign served as a celebration of Broadmead – the place, the people, the businesses and the community. Not only did the programme shine a light on the area by bringing people together to revitalise the streets and shape perceptions, but it has also left a lasting legacy on the area.
The ‘Urban Fairy Doors’ project is an open-ended initiative with local businesses still actively wanting to be involved; the ‘Glass and Colour Works’ artwork will brighten up Broadmead until its eventual redevelopment; and lasting partnerships have been created.
Broadmead is an area with a rich past and a promising future, and rather than waiting for that future to come to pass, we can act now to care, connect and create.
Dig deeper
Bristol BID showcases a different approach to Broadmead’s regeneration
As cities rethink their high streets, Playful Broadmead launches, culminating a six-month placemaking programme exploring how people can transform places long before redevelopment is complete
Global Broadmead celebrates international cultures, communities and independent businesses
This June and July, the latest chapter of our Love Bristol, Love Broadmead campaign celebrates global culture and community connections in Broadmead
Love Bristol, Love Broadmead returns with May Bank Holiday takeover
Kicking off in May, Broadmead will come alive as Bristol BID launches the next chapter of its Love Bristol, Love Broadmead campaign
Care & Repair Festival brings free, hands-on creativity, sustainability and community to Broadmead this spring
The two-week festival will see free activities and workshops taking place at Sparks Bristol and John Wesley’s New Room
Bristol BID launches Love Bristol, Love Broadmead with Spring Clean and programme of events to celebrate the heart of the city
Volunteers invited to join the Big Broadmead Spring Clean from 23-29 March as part of a new programme of events celebrating and showing love to the city centre