Bus stop that leads to nowhere stands 15 years after it was built as a joke

13 May 2023 , 18:05

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The bus stop in Bristol that continues to baffle people (Image: Bernie Yates)

A bus stop which has never been used and was put in place as a joke continues to baffle people who wonder why it is there.

While it is not unusual to see bus stops which are no longer in use, there is a strange sign placed halfway up some narrow historic steps in Bristol, where obviously a bus could never pass.

Yet it announces the supposedly imminent arrival of as many as five different bus services - the 500, 585, 510, 587 and the U6A, along with the usual Traveline phone number and warnings about not picking up after your dog.

There is something not quite right about this bus stop, which announces itself as being Bus Stop A at Hotwell Road, as for a start it isn't on that road and is 50 steps away, reported BristolLive.

And the bus stop has been there so long now that many people forget when it was originally put in.

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The Cliftonwood area of Bristol viewed from the docks (Getty Images)

It was thought to have been installed one year as a joke, probably as part of the West Bristol Arts Trail, which takes in the Hotwells and the Cliftonwood area of Bristol that’s so famous for its colourful terraces of houses.

Since it was installed at some point in the 2000s, it’s been delighting and baffling people ever since, and every so often makes an appearance in a travel blog, as someone new discovers it on their rambles in the quieter corners of picturesque Bristol.

Back in 2012, blogger Rebecca Franks spotted it for the first time exploring her corner of Bristol after she recently moved there.

“I know the shortcuts. Or so I thought. Until about a month ago, when I found a new one,” she wrote.

“Tucked away on a hairpin bend, the top end starts at the profoundly named ‘World’s End Lane’, the bottom begins in a block of flats on Jacob’s Wells roundabout.

“The wending pathway turns into the ‘White Hart Steps’, passing ‘World’s End House’, the small ‘Cherry Garden’ and, rather strangely, a bus stop. Halfway up a hill, and nowhere near a road. That’d have to be quite a bendy, narrow bus to get up there.”

Local blogger Zoe Homes also discovered it as part of her rambles up to the suspension bridge one day a few years ago, and when Jess Siggers, was asked to write the official guide to Cliftonwood by the official tourism board, Visit Bristol, she mentioned the bus stop.

“I love how much it baffles people,” she said. “It was put there about 15 years ago as part of the West Bristol Arts Trail and it never got taken down.”

Tristan Cork