Jon Searles' photos with the keyword: CVS

A lot of the Albion dockyards aren't open to the public even today, although there is some access because a lot of private boat owners dock nearby. While Albion handle far smaller boats and ships than in the past, they still do a fair amount of business in refitting. I don't know the status of these railway sidings, but the Bristol Docks Railway, now primarily a steam tourist railway, is nearby.

I found this smokestack on this building close to the famous Albion dockyards. I can't be sure, but it looks like it could have originally be a funnel on a steamship.

This is a side view from the bridge, looking north towards the Clifton Observatory.

Although it has those upright concrete supports you can see, the old Clifton Rocks Railway's Bristol Harbour station can still be identified as such. Note the lettering. Actually, the lettering was the only reason that I found it.

This shot shows the motorized cradle used for maintenance of the bridge. I actually don't know what year this was installed, but it doesn't appear in older pictures. Certainly, prior to it's being added, maintenance of the bridge was probably tricky. I haven't been able to locate information on fatalities among the maintenance crews before as opposed to after the cradle's installation.

This is the entrance to the Clifton Rocks Railway's lower station. This was a funicular railway that operated from 1893 until 1936 between Clifton and the Avon Harbour at the bottom. The entire railway was underground, in the mountainside. Ever since its closure, it has remained a tourist attraction, and occassionally toured with qualified guides. It's actually been a tourist attraction as an abandoned railway for far longer than it was an active railway. In recent years, the trust that preserves its remains has considered restoring it to operation, but a recent price estimate was around 15 million pounds.

Here's another shot of the Clifton Suspension Bridge, taken from the embankment along the Avon. Getting far enough back, but not too far back, can be difficult without a wide angle lens.

This is a view of the River Avon from the Clifton Suspension Bridge, looking south towards the city centre of Bristol. Although the Avon is associated with Stratford-upon-Avon, the birthplace of Shakespeare, it is also the main river through Bristol, and traditionally Bristol's access to the Bristol Channel. This is not insignificate historically as for several centuries Bristol's port was the most important aspect of its economy.

This is a memorial plaque on the bridge, albeit added in 1986, to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the foundation stone, rather than to discuss Brunel in any depth.

The Clifton Suspension Bridge is probably the most famous landmark in the Clifton area. It started as one of Isambard Kingdom Brunel's earliest projects, but was not completed until 1864, five years after Brunel's death. Much of the delay was financial, as several of the sponsoring companies went bankrupt. Because it wasn't a railway bridge, it didn't benefit from the success of any of Brunel's railway companies. In fact, the opposite was true. As late as 1851, materials were taken from the Clifton project in order to build the Royal Albert Bridge on the Great Western Railway (also called the Saltash bridge). Eventually, the Clifton Bridge was completed with chains (it's a suspension bridge, but uses chains instead of cables) taken from the Hungerford Suspension Bridge into Charing Cross Station in London. At that time (1860), the Charing Cross Bridge was being rebuilt. Part of the impetus was to memorialize Brunel following his death.

This is called the Arch House, which as I recall is close to the Albert Lodge. It has a deli in it, as you can see from the sign. I presume its heritage predates the deli, though.

This wasn't my first visit to Bristol, but it was the first extended visit during which I got to take photographs. This is, if I'm not mistaken, the Albert Lodge, which is in the Clifton neighborhood (if I'm remembering correctly).

I've seen considerably larger snails than this one, but this is the largest one I've photographed in the wild. I was actually worried that this one would be stepped on, since it was trying to cross one of the paths in Vysehrad, but it wasn't possible to remove it without killing it, so I left it.

I've shot photos from this location many times before, but I figured I would give it one more try. I think the reflections in the harbor came out well in this shot. The harbor connects Podoli with the River Vltava, out of the frame to the right, which would be to the West. This view is rougly to the south from the parapet of Vysehrad.

Here's a view of the Narodni Divadlo, or National Theatre of the Czech Republic, seen from Strelecky Ostrov. The bridge next to the Theatre is the Most Legii, which crosses Strelecky Ostrov and is the primary way to access the island. I have many other photos on iPernity of this area.

This is an edited version of Picture 2, utilizing Gimp's auto-levels feature.

This shot shows the area of Stare Mesto around the Karluv Most, seen on the left. The building with the clock tower is partly taken up by the Karlovy Lazne nightclub now, and the building to the left of it contains the Bedrich Smetana museum (or once did). These buildings were damaged in the recent Prague floods of June 2013.

This is one of the oldest institutions, if not buildings, in Prague, dating to 920 as an institution, although the current building dates to 1142, after the original was destroyed by fire. The reason it looks Baroque is that in the 17th Century it was covered over by a Baroque facade. The House of the Stone Bell in Staromestske Namesti also had such a facade until the 1960's when it was restored. With the (start of) construction of St. Vitus Cathedral in 1344, the Basilica of St. George was demoted in importance in the castle, but survived. However, due to its advanced age, it is the location of many historic tombs. These include St. Ludmila of Bohemia (860-921), Vratislav I (888-921), Boleslav II (932-999), and even allegedly Libuse (700's), the mysterious, legendary ruler of Bohemia. Libuse's history is so unknown that her existence is somewhat in doubt, although it does beg the question whose bones are actually buried here. It also would beg the question who founded the Premyslid dynasty. Libuse supposedly also had a father named Krok who had his own ancestors going back to the theoretical "Ur-Czech," supposedly the first Czech. Libuse is credited with having founded Prague and the Vysehrad castle, although this is perhaps an anachronism as there are records both of Prazky Hrad predating Vysehrad, and of Libuse's descendent Borivoj having moved the Czech capital from Levy Hradec to Prague during his reign (although the exact date is unknown, being probably around the time of his promotion, to Duke rather than King, in 870). On the photographic side of things, this is my first shot online taken with CVS store brand film with 400 ISO. This particular variety, with negative markings of 400N CH25, is actually manufactured by Fuji.