Nostalgia The early days of city's internet cafes

Once the forefront of technology but now a business of the past, Sophie Grubb recalls Bristol's internet cafe scene...

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THE Internet is an international network of computers and one of the most exciting communications developments ever. It is going to become as much a part of our life as the telephone and television, revolutionising communication.

That was the prediction of a 1998 article in the Bristol Post, just on the cusp of the digital age that has since transformed the world just as that journalist promised.

Back in that late 90s boom, those who embraced this new technology included an evergrowing list of internet cafes, where people could pay a few pounds per hour to browse the net while sipping on coffee and trying to keep cake crumbs off the keyboard.

The first to open in Bristol was City NetGates, which arrived on Broad Street in 1995 as one of the pioneers of computer technology. An article in 1999 reported on the city centre cafe's success: