Red brick tobacco and paper factories behind Victorian terraces, and the tower block Only Fools and Horses used as Nelson Mandela House.
What Bedminster looks like
East Street and North Street carry Bedminster's main shopping strip, part of the A38, past two and three storey shopfronts with painted fascias. Tall red brick former tobacco and paper bag factories rise behind them, four to five storeys with terracotta trim, one of the s kept as a preserved frontage at East Street and Lombard Street. On the walls of the old Robinson's factory, large painted murals cover parts of the brick and change every few years.
Behind the main streets, a grid of two storey Victorian terraces covers the surrounding blocks. climbs a slope of red brick and rendered fronts, cars parked along the kerb, with the Clifton Suspension Bridge visible above the rooftops at the top of the rise. holds its own run of independent shopfronts, including a corner carpet shop at Churchlands Road and a small used car showroom.
On Bedminster Parade, the former library is a red brick and yellow stone building from 1914, with a square tower and arched windows. It is now a gallery and cafe. Newer red brick terraces and a student housing block sit on redeveloped sites along Beauley Road and Chapel Barton, an old alleyway kept between the new blocks. , a glass shelter behind a low brick wall, sits on the line toward Nailsea and Exeter.
Shot in Bedminster
Whitemead House, one of three council tower blocks built on Duckmoor Road around 1962, was the exterior of Nelson Mandela House in the BBC sitcom Only Fools and Horses from its sixth series onward. The block stands in Ashton Gate, just west of Bedminster, next to Ashton Gate Stadium.
Only Fools and Horses
Played Nelson Mandela House, Peckham, London, 1988 to 2003
The tower's plain concrete face needed no dressing to play Del Boy's fictional Peckham block. The garage block on the same road, once the site of his lock-up door, was rebuilt in 2021. The original door is now on display at the British Motor Museum. Street View
Ancoats' five and six storey cotton mills are the same red brick bulk as Bedminster's tobacco factories, built across the 1890s to 1910s and converted into flats the same way. Both keep the original brick rather than rendering over it, and both stand directly against a grid of two storey Victorian terraces. Manchester's mill windows run in tighter, more regular rows than Bedminster's factories, so a close shot on the window grid gives the city away. Try searching converted brick mill flats now.
Digbeth in Birmingham, England
Digbeth has the same combination of red brick Victorian factories and large painted murals that cover parts of Bedminster's own factory walls. Both areas repaint their murals every few years, so neither look is fixed to one artist or one year. Digbeth's walls are larger and more crowded with murals than Bedminster's, so a single wall or corner keeps the comparison tighter. Try searching red brick mural walls now.
American Tobacco Historic District in Durham, North Carolina
Durham's American Tobacco Historic District is built from the same kind of red brick tobacco factory Bedminster's Wills buildings are, put up across the 1900s to 1930s and converted decades later into offices and flats. The scale and the brick colour are close enough for a tight exterior. American brick coursing and taller loading bays read differently in a wide shot, so this works best on brick and window rhythm alone rather than a full elevation. Try searching converted tobacco factory brick now.
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