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Each 20 minutes or so, an ageing diesel-powered railway carriage pulls into a graffiti-covered stop. Close by, a police siren pierces the almost continuous road noise. Daily travelers rush by falling apart, ivy-covered fencing panels as storm clouds form.

It is maybe the last place you anticipate to find a well-established grape-growing plot. However one local grower has managed to 40 mature vines heavy with round purplish berries on a sprawling garden plot situated between a row of historic homes and a local rail line just north of the city town centre.

"I've noticed people concealing illegal substances or whatever in those bushes," says the grower. "But you just get on with it ... and keep tending to your vines."

Bayliss-Smith, 46, a documentary cameraman who also has a kombucha drinks business, is not the only urban winemaker. He has pulled together a informal group of cultivators who make vintage from several discreet city grape gardens tucked away in back gardens and allotments throughout Bristol. The project is too clandestine to have an official name yet, but the group's WhatsApp group is called Grape Expectations.

Urban Vineyards Around the Globe

So far, Bayliss-Smith's allotment is the only one listed in the City Vineyard Network's upcoming global directory, which features more famous urban wineries such as the 1,800 plants on the slopes of the French capital's historic Montmartre neighbourhood and more than 3,000 grapevines with views of and within the Italian city. Based in Italy charitable organization is at the vanguard of a movement reviving urban grape cultivation in historic wine-producing countries, but has identified them all over the globe, including urban centers in East Asia, Bangladesh and Central Asia.

"Vineyards assist cities remain more eco-friendly and ecologically varied. These spaces preserve land from development by creating long-term, yielding agricultural units within urban environments," says the organization's leader.

Like all wines, those created in urban areas are a result of the soils the plants thrive in, the vagaries of the climate and the people who tend the fruit. "A bottle of wine represents the beauty, community, environment and history of a urban center," adds the spokesperson.

Unknown Eastern European Variety

Returning to the city, the grower is in a urgent timeline to gather the grapevines he grew from a plant left in his allotment by a Eastern European household. If the rain arrives, then the birds may take advantage to feast once more. "Here we have the mystery Eastern European variety," he comments, as he cleans bruised and mouldy berries from the glistering bunches. "We don't really know their exact classification, but they're definitely disease-resistant. In contrast to noble varieties – Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and other famous French grapes – you don't have to treat them with chemicals ... this could be a special variety that was bred by the Eastern Bloc."

Group Activities Across the City

Additional participants of the group are also making the most of sunny interludes between showers of autumn rain. At a rooftop garden with views of the city's glistening harbour, where medieval merchant vessels once bobbed with barrels of wine from France and Spain, one cultivator is collecting her rondo grapes from approximately 50 plants. "I adore the aroma of the grapevines. The scent is so reminiscent," she remarks, stopping with a container of grapes resting on her arm. "It recalls the fragrance of Provence when you open the vehicle windows on holiday."

Grant, 52, who has devoted more than 20 years working for charitable groups in war-torn regions, inadvertently took over the vineyard when she moved back to the United Kingdom from East Africa with her household in recent years. She experienced an overwhelming duty to maintain the vines in the garden of their recently acquired property. "This plot has already endured multiple proprietors," she explains. "I really like the concept of natural stewardship – of handing this down to someone else so they can keep cultivating from the soil."

Terraced Vineyards and Traditional Winemaking

Nearby, the final two members of the group are busily laboring on the precipitous slopes of the local river valley. One filmmaker has cultivated more than one hundred fifty plants situated on terraces in her expansive property, which tumbles down towards the silty River Avon. "Visitors frequently express amazement," she says, indicating the tangled grape garden. "They can't believe they are viewing grapevine lines in a urban neighborhood."

Currently, the filmmaker, 60, is harvesting clusters of deep violet Rondo grapes from rows of vines slung across the hillside with the help of her child, Luca. Scofield, a wildlife and conservation film-maker who has contributed to streaming service's Great National Parks series and television network's gardening shows, was inspired to cultivate vines after seeing her neighbour's vines. She's discovered that amateurs can make intriguing, pleasurable natural wine, which can command prices of upwards of seven pounds a serving in the increasing quantity of wine bars focusing on low-processing wines. "It's just incredibly satisfying that you can actually make quality, traditional vintage," she says. "It is quite on trend, but in reality it's reviving an old way of making wine."

"During foot-stomping the fruit, the various wild yeasts are released from the skins into the liquid," explains the winemaker, ankle deep in a bucket of small branches, pips and crimson juice. "This represents how wines were made traditionally, but industrial wineries add preservatives to kill the natural cultures and then incorporate a lab-grown yeast."

Challenging Conditions and Creative Approaches

A few doors down active senior another cultivator, who motivated Scofield to establish her grapevines, has gathered his friends to pick white wine varieties from one hundred vines he has laid out neatly across two terraces. Reeve, a northern English PE teacher who worked at the local university developed a passion for wine on regular visits to Europe. However it is a difficult task to cultivate this particular variety in the humidity of the gorge, with temperature fluctuations moving through from the nearby estuary. "I aimed to produce Burgundian wines in this location, which is somewhat ambitious," admits Reeve with a smile. "Chardonnay is slow-maturing and particularly vulnerable to mildew."

"I wanted to make Burgundian wines here, which is rather ambitious"

The unpredictable local weather is not the only problem faced by grape cultivators. Reeve has had to install a fence on