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Each 20 minutes or so, an ageing diesel train arrives at a graffiti-covered station. Nearby, a law enforcement alarm cuts through the near-constant road noise. Daily travelers rush by collapsing, ivy-draped garden fences as rain clouds form.

This is maybe the least likely spot you expect to find a well-established grape-growing plot. However James Bayliss-Smith has cultivated four dozen established plants heavy with round purplish grapes on a rambling allotment situated between a row of 1930s houses and a local rail line just north of Bristol town centre.

"I've seen individuals concealing illegal substances or other items in those bushes," says Bayliss-Smith. "Yet you just get on with it ... and continue caring for your vines."

The cameraman, 46, a filmmaker who runs a fermented beverage company, is not the only urban winemaker. He has organized a informal group of growers who produce vintage from several hidden city grape gardens nestled in back gardens and community plots across the city. The project is sufficiently underground to have an official name so far, but the collective's WhatsApp group is called Vineyard Dreams.

Urban Vineyards Across the World

To date, the grower's plot is the only one registered in the City Vineyard Network's upcoming world atlas, which features better-known city vineyards such as the eighteen hundred vines on the hillsides of Paris's renowned Montmartre area and more than three thousand vines with views of and inside the Italian city. Based in Italy non-profit association is at the forefront of a movement reviving city vineyards in traditional winemaking nations, but has identified them all over the world, including urban centers in Japan, South Asia and Central Asia.

"Grape gardens help urban areas stay more eco-friendly and ecologically varied. These spaces preserve open space from construction by establishing permanent, productive farming plots inside urban environments," says the association's president.

Similar to other vintages, those produced in cities are a product of the earth the plants grow in, the unpredictability of the climate and the individuals who tend the grapes. "Each vintage represents the charm, community, environment and history of a urban center," notes the president.

Unknown Eastern European Grapes

Back in Bristol, Bayliss-Smith is in a urgent timeline to gather the grapevines he grew from a cutting abandoned in his allotment by a Polish family. Should the precipitation arrives, then the pigeons may take advantage to attack once more. "Here we have the enigmatic Eastern European grape," he says, as he removes bruised and rotten berries from the shimmering bunches. "We don't really know their exact classification, but they're definitely disease-resistant. In contrast to noble varieties – Burgundy grapes, white wine grapes and additional renowned European varieties – you don't have to treat them with pesticides ... this could be a special variety that was developed by the Soviets."

Collective Efforts Throughout the City

Additional participants of the group are additionally taking advantage of bright periods between bursts of autumn rain. At a rooftop garden with views of Bristol's shimmering harbour, where historic trading ships once bobbed with barrels of vintage from France and Spain, Katy Grant is harvesting her rondo grapes from approximately fifty vines. "I love the aroma of the grapevines. The scent is so evocative," she remarks, pausing with a container of fruit resting on her shoulder. "It's the scent of Provence when you roll down the vehicle windows on holiday."

The humanitarian worker, 52, who has spent over 20 years working for humanitarian organizations in conflict zones, inadvertently took over the vineyard when she returned to the United Kingdom from East Africa with her household in recent years. She felt an strong responsibility to maintain the grapevines in the yard of their recently acquired property. "This plot has already survived multiple proprietors," she explains. "I really like the idea of natural stewardship – of handing this down to future caretakers so they keep cultivating from the soil."

Terraced Vineyards and Traditional Production

Nearby, the remaining cultivators of the collective are busily laboring on the steep inclines of the local river valley. One filmmaker has established more than one hundred fifty plants perched on ledges in her expansive property, which descends towards the silty River Avon. "Visitors frequently express amazement," she notes, indicating the tangled grape garden. "It's astonishing to them they can see rows of vines in a urban neighborhood."

Today, the filmmaker, 60, is picking clusters of deep violet Rondo grapes from rows of vines slung across the hillside with the help of her daughter, her family member. The conservationist, a wildlife and conservation film-maker who has worked on Netflix's Great National Parks series and BBC Two's Gardeners' World, was motivated to plant grapes after seeing her neighbor's vines. She's discovered that hobbyists can make interesting, pleasurable natural wine, which can command prices of more than seven pounds a serving in the increasing quantity of wine bars focusing on low-processing vintages. "It's just incredibly satisfying that you can truly make good, natural wine," she says. "It's very fashionable, but in reality it's reviving an old way of making vintage."

"During foot-stomping the grapes, all the wild yeasts are released from the surfaces and enter the liquid," says Scofield, ankle deep in a container of small branches, seeds and crimson juice. "That's how wines were made traditionally, but industrial wineries add preservatives to eliminate the natural cultures and subsequently add a lab-grown culture."

Challenging Conditions and Inventive Solutions

A few doors down active senior Bob Reeve, who inspired Scofield to plant her vines, has assembled his friends to harvest white wine varieties from the 100 vines he has laid out neatly across two terraces. Reeve, a northern English PE teacher who taught at Bristol University developed a passion for viticulture on regular visits to Europe. But it is a challenge to cultivate Chardonnay grapes in the humidity of the valley, with cooling tides sweeping in and out from the nearby estuary. "I wanted to make French-style vintages in this location, which is somewhat ambitious," says Reeve with a smile. "This variety is late to ripen and particularly vulnerable to mildew."

"My goal was creating European-style vintages in this environment, which is a bit bonkers"

The temperamental local weather is not the only problem faced by winegrowers. Reeve has had to erect a barrier on