People / My Bristol Favourites
My Bristol Favourites: Roya Modarasi
Artist and interior designer Roya Modarasi came to England from the southern Iranian city of Shiraz in 2005.
She studied fine art at Newcastle University and completed her master’s degree at Middlesex University, then designed and sold dresses in London.
After a spell modelling, Roya moved to Bristol in 2022 to join her brother Esi, a furniture maker, and his wife, Sami, a seamstress, to open Modarasi in Clifton Village, offering interior design, furniture and restoration.
is needed now More than ever
These are Roya’s top-five Bristol favourites:
Clifton Suspension Bridge
The view of the Suspension Bridge from Modarasi – photo: Martin Booth
“Choosing the Suspension Bridge seems really obvious, I know. But my perspective is from working in my shop on the corner of Princess Victoria Street and Sion Hill. When my door is open in summer, I can see and hear the delight of tourists as they turn that corner and see Brunel’s masterpiece. It makes me smile every time.”
The Ivy
The Ivy Clifton Brasserie opened in 2017 – photo: The Ivy
“I am at work six days a week but sometimes I can escape afterwards to the Ivy around the corner in Caledonia Place for an espresso martini. They always make me feel welcome, especially Mimmo, the manager. Sometimes they surprise me with a new cocktail. I was little when the Iranian revolution happened in 1979, so I had never drunk alcohol until I arrived in the UK. A friend took me to a pub not far from Heathrow. I opened the car door and found a £10 note on the ground. I took it as a good omen for my new life.”
Persian Food Station
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“It has just been Nowruz, the Persian new year – and my birthday! I grew up in Shiraz, one of Iran’s most beautiful cities, famous for its gardens and flowers and for the two most famous Persian poets, Hafez and Saadi, whose poem, The Children of Adam, is inscribed on a large hand-made carpet hanging in the United Nations building in New York. For a taste of home, I go to Persian Food Station on Gloucester Road, run by husband and wife Eisa and Niloufar. I’ll start with mirza ghasemi (smoked aubergines, tomatoes, eggs and garlic) with flatbread and for a main, I’ll have a stew: either khoresht gheymeh badenjan (split yellow peas and aubergines with lamb and dried limes cooked in tomato sauce) or khoresht fesenjana (traditional lamb stew with walnuts in pomegranate paste) both with saffron rice.”
Kings Weston House
Kings Weston House was mentioned in Jane Austen’s books ‘Sense and Sensibility’ and ‘Northanger Abbey’ – photo: Kings Weston House
“We’ve been lucky enough to work on lots of sofas and chairs at Kings Weston House, the mansion designed by John Vanbrugh in the early 1700s. The owner, John Barbey, a scion of the apparel and footwear dynasty which founded VF Corporation, which now owns The North Face and Timberland, is fascinated by baroque architecture and furniture. It says in Bristol, An Architectural History that neither Wren nor Hawksmoor ‘was able, as was Vanbrugh at Kings Weston, to force so much expression out of so simple a building’.”
Ashtanga yoga
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“I go to yoga at Bannatyne’s in Redland to relieve the stress from my life. My teacher, Wale Ladeinde, is a very cool guy, always full of energy. The breathing session is just the best thing to finish off the week.”
Main photo: Roya Modarasi
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