Bristol Diversity Trail
Bristol has been a multiethnic city since its development in the Saxon period, more than 1,000 years ago. Lots of people have visited and settled in Bristol, including neighbours from Wales and Ireland; people from across Europe, Africa, Asia and elsewhere.
Diversity can relate to many things, including gender, religion, culture, social class, nationality, ethnicity and language. This trail tells some of the diverse history in Bristol.
From Bristol Bridge to Welsh Back: traders and settlers
Part of Georgius Hoefnagles 1581 map of Brightstowe.
©Bristol City Museums, Galleries & Archives.
From Bristol Bridge to Welsh Back: traders and settlers
Start at where Bristol started … ‘The place of the bridge’.
Bristol Bridge, facing St Nicholas ChurchThe name ‘Bristol’ came from the Saxon words for ‘the place of the bridge’: Bryc Stow or Brygc Stow. The spelling of the word varies – fixed spelling of names is a recent idea. So, if you had been in Bristol before the 18th century, it wouldn’t really have mattered how you spelt the name of the place because most people couldn’t read.
Bristol Bridge, from the East Bank.
By 1066 there were about 4,000 people here trading local fish, wool, cloth, fruit, vegetables and wheat. Bristol was a big town. Records show that traderscame here from (and travelled to) Wales, Iceland, Ireland, Bordeaux, Gascony (France) and Spain. Some of the sailors and traders brought their families, stayed here and settled down.
St Nicholas Church
Look at the church. There has been a church here since at least 1154, maybe longer. This church was built between 1762 and 1769. In 1760 the whole area around the bridge was demolished, including St Nicholas's Gate, the church, the medieval Shambles (street of the butchers) and the 30 houses on the old wooden medieval bridge. This was done to widen the road for horse drawn carts and carriages.
Inside the church there are wall memorials to locals and some of the settlers who came to Bristol. Some of the French Protestant Huguenot settlers, who escaped to Bristol to avoid the religious violence in France in the 1680s, went to church here. Outside the building there is bomb shrapnel damage from the wartime Blitz in 1941.
The bridge had houses on it which were five stories high, and overhung both the road and river – just like at old London Bridge. On your right, in medieval times, there was a large Norman Castle. Ahead of you was the busy, noisy and smelly medieval town.
Victoria Street and Temple Street: Jewish immigrants and Crusaders
Cross and walk to stand opposite 10 Victoria Street – the former Platnauer Brothers Shop.
Platnauer Brothers shop
Several generations of immigrants from central Europe once lived in this house, and ran a successful business selling things to passers-by. This row of buildings is now offices, but not so long ago this was a busy shopping street.
Look up above number 10 and you can see the owner’s name painted near the top of the building. The Platnauer family were skilled watchmakers and jewellershere from around 1870 to the 1940s. They were Jewish, and had come to Bristol around 1838 from Poland to escape violent attacks on Jews there at that time.
Platnauer Brothers shop.
Walk along Victoria Street towards Temple Meads. Turn left into the nearby Temple Meads Church and Gardens.
Temple Church
The medieval Order of the Knights Templar was an international group whose members made a vow to God to protect Christian pilgrims travelling to the Holy Land. In 1145, the Templars were given the whole of this area by the local landholder, Robert De Berkley, and they set up a small religious community here. In the 1300s they built a circular church on the site.
During the 14th century, the Templars were closed down by the Pope. The ruined building here today was built in the 14th century after the Templars had left the area. The church was destroyed in bombing raids during 1940-41.
Look carefully at the tower.After it was built,the ground subsided. The builders waited years until the tower stopped moving, then built the top section properly on the lopsided base. After the 1941 bombings, some people said the bombing had made the tower dangerous – but locals explained that Temple Church had always leant over.
Look into...
Temple Street
During the 19th and early 20th centuries, the whole Temple area was made up of small factories and workshops, narrow streets and workers’ houses. Lots of low paid workers and many immigrant families lived in the area,
including Jewish families from Russia, Poland and the German states. Bristol’s Jewish community used two old buildings in Temple Street as synagogues before their new purpose-built synagogue opened in Clifton.
Most of the area was flattened in 1941, so the street you see today is not as narrow, busy or historically interesting as it was in the past.
Sketch of Old House in Temple Street (1819), former residence of Sir JohnKnight, by artist Hugh O’Neill (1784 – 1824).© Bristol City Museums, Libraries and Art Galleries (BraikenridgeCollection M2153).
Castle Green: aliens, arguments and slavery
Return to, and cross, Bristol Bridge. Turn right into Castle Green Park. Stop where you can see the bombed ruins of St Peter’s Church at the centre of the park.
There are several reminders here that some people are willing to fight for things they have strong views about. This park covers the site of the medieval castle which was demolished after the civil war of the 1640s¸and also the site of houses and shops which were destroyed during the 1940-41 air raids.
Up until then it had been a busy area with lots of historic buildings, businesses and homes. From the river you can see the entrances to medieval cellars where goods were unloaded directly from ships on the river into the stores under the shops and houses.
On the side of the church there is a memorial to the people who were killed in the bombing and alongside the steps down to the river there is a memorial to the men who died fighting for democracy in the Spanish Civil War of
1936-39.
In the centre of the park stands...
St Peter’s Church
This place has lots of memories connected to it. The original church here was set up by Saxons next to the road that went through the original settlement by the bridge. What you can see today dates from around 1100 to 1400, and is kept like this as a memorial to the people of Bristol who were killed during the Second World War.
A brass memorial to a foreigner used to be on the wall of this church – Robert Londe, who died in 1462, was an Irish priest and schoolmaster who lived in the city for a long time. The law said he was an alien, and he was made to pay the special tax on foreigners called the ‘Alien Subsidy,’ in the 1430s and 1440s. The brass memorial to him was destroyed in the Bristol Blitz.
St Peter’s Church.
Nearby were the...
Castle Park Sugar Houses (now destroyed)
Bristol merchants and traders made a fortune from the Transatlantic Slave Trade in the 16th – 18th centuries. Lots of Bristolians profited from slavery and slave-produced goods, or worked in businesses funded from slavery-related money. Near here were several Sugar Houses, where sugar cane was boiled in large tubs to be turned into sugar crystals.
Although there were a few hundred free black people in Bristol before the 19th century, very few enslaved black people came to Bristol. Modern stories about slaves being imprisoned in Redcliffe Caves, or links between slavery and the street names of Blackboy Hill and Whiteladies Road are all incorrect.
Also nearby stood the offices of...
Felix Farley’s Bristol Journal
Huge family arguments about religion took place here during the 18th century when the Farley Brothers, who owned some of Bristol’s earliest newspapers, fell out in 1751. The arguments were so bad that the entire business was divided and rival newspapers were set up. Although both men were Christians, Felix Farley worshipped in a Methodist church and Samuel Farley was a Quaker. Even their deaths in 1753 did not finish the row – their children continued the feud for the next 20 years.
The old city: debt and destruction
A small number of Jewish people came to England in the 11th – 12th centuries and to Bristol from around 1160. Sometimes they were picked on because they were not Christians. Jews living in early medieval towns had to live within certain streets in the Jewry (Jewish district), although Christians could live there as well and there seem to have been few arguments between ordinary Christians and Jews. Jews living in England were officially under special protection by the King.
At the end of Broad Street, between St John’s Gate (the ‘Church in the wall’) and St Giles Gate at Small Street (modern Bell Lane) was the Quay Head (or Old) Jewry. No evidence remains here.
This site was the location of Bristol’s first medieval Jewry or Jewish quarter in the early Middle Ages. Bristol’s earliest synagogue, called the Old Temple was in a building nearby. When the area was redeveloped its old street name, Jewry Lane, was changed.
Royal protection did not always work. In 1263William Giffard,with more than 20 paid thugs, led an attack on Jewish homes in Bristol’s Quay Head Jewry. Royal and court records and property were destroyed in Bristol, and elsewhere in what historians call Simon de Montfort’s Rebellion. In 1263 a major rebellion had taken place against the King, led by the supporters of Simon de Montfort. William Giffard was the local leader of the revolt; Giffard owed three Bristol Jews a lot of money and used the chaos of the revolt to destroy records of what he owed.
Stand where Wine Street and The Pithay meet. Near here was the...
Winch Street (or New) Jewry (no visible remains exist on the site)
Jewish homes were relocated along and nearby this street after De Montfort’s Rebellion, in order to be closer to Bristol Castle (to be safer). Two buildings here were used for Jewish worship, but both have long gone. The Old Synagogue was opposite St Peter’s Church, and the newer synagogue was located on the north side of Winch Street. King Edward I taxed the Jews more and more, and in 1290 he had the entire Jewish community expelled from England.
Welsh Back to Queen’s Square: trade, power and money
Walk along Welsh Back and turn right into King Street. On the left you will see...
The Llandogger Trow Public House
This pub, built in 1664, is named after the flat bottomed barges, from the village of Llandogo in South Wales, which arrived to unload and load nearby to supply the ‘Welch Market’ that was nearby. The Welsh have always been the largest minority group in Bristol, and this part of the quayside has been called Welsh Back since at least the 18th century. It is widely believed that the inn, The Spy-Glass, featured in R.L.Stevenson’s Treasure Island is based on the Llandogger Trow.
The Llandogger Trow Public House.
Further down the street, and to the right is...
The Theatre Royal
In the past, some locals believed that a good play could change opinions. The anti-slavery plays Oroonoko, the story of an enslaved African,and The Padlock were performed here as part of a campaign to convince people that slavery was wrong and cruel.
The plays helped raise public awareness about the slave trade, but lots of Bristolians were making money from slavery so it was hard to convince some locals.
The Theatre Royal was opened in 1766; built to a design by the architect William Halfpenny. It is the oldest functioning theatre in England, and some of the families of the original investors still have a silver disc which allows free entry to performances.
Further along the street turn left, and walk through King William Street into an area with very strong links to diversity.
Queen’s Square: royal visits and revolts, pirates and protests
Queen’s Square is home to lots of history – some of these stories would perhaps even make good Hollywood movies!
A Queen’s visit:the Square was laid out after Queen Anne’s royal visit in 1702, but wasonly finished in 1727.
A King’s victory:the central statue shows William III, dressed like a Roman Emperor. In 1732, city merchants paid for this memorial to William’s 1690 victory over King James II at the Battle of the Boyne in Ireland. At this time there was a lot of prejudice against foreigners and Catholics – but the statue was created by Flemish (Belgian) Catholic artist Michael Rysbrack.
Statue of William III.
The asylum seekers story:the Peloquin family of merchants escaped from attacks on Protestant Huguenots in France during the 1680s, and became rich traders in Bristol. The Peloquins traded in tobacco and other goods and Stephen became an Alderman of the City Council in 1693. Other Huguenots lived in the square, including Stephen’s sister Mary Ann, who left much of her fortune to charities which still operate in Bristol, and Daniel Goisin, who was a rich merchant in the New York, West Indian and West African trades.
A Black Man named Bristol:at number 29, one of the house servants, a black servant called Bristol, inherited £10 per year (this was lot of money then,) after thedeath of his employer, Henry Bright, in 1771. Bright was a merchant and ex-Mayor.
The pirate and slave trader: Numbers 33 – 35 were once home to Henry Woodes Rogers, who became Governor of the British Caribbean colony in the Bahamas in 1717. He was a merchant and ships captain; he became rich by attacking and capturing ships belonging to Britain’s enemies and by trading in slaves.
The American Consul: 37 Queen’s Square – Elias Vanderhorst ran the first United States Consulate (mini-embassy) in Britain here from September 1792.
Beating the burglars: In 1831, at Christopher Claxton’s house, another black servant became well known when he threw looters out of the windows during a huge city-wide riot. Earlier that day the hugely unpopular judge Sir Charles Wetherill had escaped over the square’s rooftops dressed as a woman.
The politics of hate: In February 1829,20,000 Bristolians came to Queen’s Square to demonstrate against reform plans. They were against letting Catholics attend university, serve as MPs and as military officers, or hold government posts. The local newspaper, Felix Farley’s Bristol Journal, praised the event, while the radical Bristol Mercury criticised the crowd. Despite the protest,an Act of Parliament was passed in April 1829 giving Catholics more freedom.
Pero’s Bridge and St Augustine’s Parade: the legacies of slavery
Walk through the Narrow Quay to Pero’s Bridge
Pero’s Bridge
This foot bridge, opened in 1999, was designed by Irish artist Eilis O'Connell to commemorate Pero Jones (1750-1798) – an enslaved African who arrived in Bristol in 1784 from Nevis in the Caribbean. Pero was the servant of Bristol merchant John Pinney (1740-1818). The bridge was named after Pero by the City Council as a memorial to the enslaved Africans and African-Caribbean people who helped make the city rich, and to show regret for local involvement in the slave trade.
Pero’s Bridge.
Don’t cross the bridge, but walk along the quayside with the Floating Harbour on your left at the far side of the water.
Colston Tower
Most of the city bus routes pass through this area. The ColstonTower office block stands here and was once home to the City Bus Company. It is named after Edward Colston, whose statue stands nearby. He made lots of his money from sugar grown by enslaved people.
In the 1960s lots of people had racist attitudes, and the bus company would not employ black and ethnic minority workers. A campaign was started by members of the local black community to boycott (refuse to use) the city buses until they employed people of colour. The campaign was supported so well by some locals that the bus company eventually changed its policy, and British law was changed to protect people from racism at work.
Tony Benn (Labour MP for Bristol South East,
1950-61 and 1963-83) and Paul Stephenson on
board an old Bristol bus to mark the 40th anniversary
of the Bristol Bus Boycott (2003).
© Lord Mayor’s Office, Bristol.