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BRISTOL CHRONCLE OF EVENTS 1800s
Selected from Directories and Annals
18601861
Bristol Bridge widened and eastern toll houses demolished (western toll houses removed 1873).
Redland Park Congregational Chapel opened.
St. Bartholomew's Church, Union Street, consecrated.
St. Luke's Church, Bedminster, consecrated.
City Road and Philip Street Baptist Chapels opened.
Tyndall's Park Road opened.DAEDALUS arrived at Mardyke.
Census population 154,000.
First parade of 2nd Gloucestershire Engineer Volunteer Corps.
Proposed that the Council water the streets.
Right-of-way dispute at archway leading to Victoria Square, brought to a head by the lifting of a pram (then a new vehicle) over a gate. Legal argument turned on the obstruction caused by a baby's carriage not being so formidable as one crinoline meeting another crinoline.
The battle of Boyce's buildings ended in 1873, when the eccentric owner was in his 92nd year.
The Broadmead Rooms, being too small, the Colston Hall Company was formed. The Great House demolished 1863, and the new hall opened 1867.
Bishop's College purchased for the Volunteer Rifle Corps H.Q. Drill Hall adjoining opened 1862.
City Lunatic Asylum at Fishponds opened.
Colston School boys transferred to Bishop's Palace, Stapleton.
Clifton Down (230 acres) and Durdham Down (212 acres) secured by Act of Parliament to the citizens for ever as place of public resort and recreation.
Blondin performed on the high rope at the zoo.
1862
OPENED : Clifton College; Emmanuel Church in the Dings; Hensman Memorial church,Victoria Square.
Road on Downs made: Upper Belgrave Road to Sneyd Park.
Statue of the late Prince Consort proposed to stand in front of Victoria Rooms, but subscriptions not sufficient to proceed.
Volunteer Review on Durdham Down; 6,746 Volunteer troops of all arms present. Spectators numbered 100,000.
1863
OPENED : Philip Street, Bedminster; Buckingham Vale, Clifton; Richmond Park Road; Windmill Hill; Arley Hill. Victoria Wesleyan Methodist Chapel, Whiteladies Road, opened.
College Green Hotel Company formed, and Royal Hotel opened 1868.
White Lion Hotel, White Hart Hotel, and The Plume of Feathers Inn acquired for a new Hotel opened in 1869, subsequently named the Grand Hotel.
Marriage of Prince & Princess of Wales: oak tree planted on Brandon Hill; 4,000 children taken to zoo; electric light and fireworks; necklace given to the Princess by the ladies of Bristol.
The Elephant, St. Nicholas Street, set back.
Sir Greville Smyth planned to sell Nightingale Valley, Leigh Woods, to a building speculator for the erection of 800 tenements of poor character; the Leigh Woods Land Company formed by some generous citizens, to prevent the desecration.
Bristol Port & Pier Railway begun. Bristol and North Somerset railway begun.
City boundaries perambulated and sailed over.
Bristol and South Wales Union Railway opened.
1864
New north aisle added to St. Jamess Church, but incongruity criticised.
Oakfield Road Unitarian Chapel opened.
Stables fronting Queen's Road at the back of Berkeley Square houses being converted to shops.
Red Lion, Redcliff Street, demolished. The Angel Inn, High Street, removed.
Garibaldi passed through Bristol. Bath & West of England Show on Downs.Church Congress in Bristol.
Clifton Suspension Bridge opened.
1865
OPENED : Port & Pier Railway; Avonmouth Gardens.
House next door to The Angel Inn, High Street, fell down.
Public Houses to be closed between I a.m. and 4 a.m.
(This new regulation added to the tranquility of the streets).
W. G. Grace, when only 17, selected to play in the premier match of the year' Gentlemen versus Players.
Bristol Assize restored.
Working Men's Industrial Exhibition, Rifle Drill Hall, visited by 116,926 persons.
Trefoil parapet at Cross demolished.
New thoroughfare from College Green to Hotwell Road (Deanery Road) made, following demolition of part of the Deanery at right angles to Norman Arch, thus replacing the existing route by Cow Street and Frog Lane (now under Park Street Viaduct). As a result the road in front of Cathedral was lowered leaving the original doorway in North Transept three feet above the new level.
Two pigs of lead with Roman inscriptions found on banks of Froom near Wade Street the only important Roman relics so far found in Bristol.
Lovers' Walk, Redland, sold, partly for building, partly for an open space. An iron church in Tyndall's Park in temporary use for ten years.
1866
OPENED : Rupert Street; Fairfax Street.
Opened: Pembroke Chapel, Oakfield Road; Triliity Chapel,Whiteladies Road; Emmanuel Church, Clifton.
Mr. J. H. Chute, manager of Theatre Royal, purchased a large house in Park Row and constructed the new Theatre Royal, (Princes Theatre) on the site. Cost £18,000 (Accommodating 2,400).
Bristol Harbour Railway constructed under Redcliff Hill caused the removal of the Vicarage and nearly all one side of Guinea Street, giving the Vestry £2,500 compensation, which purchased ground at Arno's Vale for the church cemetery.
Rownham Ferry bought by Corporation for £10,000.
The lowering of the road in front of the Cathedral, led to the discovery of the foundations of a small Norman nave and of a later one commenced (probably by Abbot Knowle) but never completed, and inspired an appeal by Canon Norris to reconstruct the nave. This led to the great work of the next twenty years.
Bristol Turnpike Trustees controlling 163 miles of road, reported that the mortgage debt was nearly paid off, and this led to the tolls being abolished in 1867, thus throwing the maintenance of the roads on to the ratepayers, and most of the toll houses were demolished.
(The Clifton toll house at the top of Bridge Valley Road had a large rustic portico, under which the public were accustomed to take shelter during sudden showers of rain).
1875
OPENED :Beaufort Road; road round Sea Walls; road from Blackboy to Stoke Hill; Baldwin Street fishmarket.Cabmen's Rests: St. James Barton; St. Johns School, Blackboy Hill; Bristol Bridge; Old Market; Triangle.
Bristol Industrial Dwellings Company erect tenements in Jacob's Wells Road.
February: Downs Railway Tunnel completed. (Extension to Avonmouth not opened until 1885)
February 13: Horfield lit with gas.
March 16: Downs Railway Tunnel passed through by the Mayor and party.
May 3: Albert Hall, Hotwells, opened.
June: Alderman. Proctor gives Fishponds Park to the City.
July 31: St. Philip's Bridge freed to pedestrians.
August: First tram service opened: Perry Road bottom Blackboy Hill; 115,000 carried in first month. (Proposed extension Victoria Rooms to Victoria Square opposed by Clifton residents.)
October 7: Four killed at South Liberty Pit, Ashton.
December 4: Tram line extended to Drawbridge.
1876
OPENED: Zetland Road.
Cabmens Rests: Clifton Down (near. Suspension Bridge); Clifton Road (near. Clifton Church); Redcliffe Hill.
Chairmen's Rests set up. Foundation of Bristol University College. Demolition of the mansion, Ashley Court, for building plots. Great fire in Christmas Street.
February: New North Porch of Cathedral adorned with statues of Gregory, Jerome, Ambrose and Augustine, provoked a No-Popery controversy. Replaced two years later with figures of the four Evangelists. Rejected statues now at East Heslerton Church, Yorks.
April 22: Formation of Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society.
June 3: Trains: Old Market to Eastville.
July: St. Philip's Branch Library opened.
August 1: Amalgamation of G.W.R. and Bristol and Exeter Railway.
September 30: Trains: Perry Road to Old Market.October: Central Library opened.
October 28: Trains: Old Market to St. George.
1877
OPENED: Cotham Park; Brigstocke Road. Cabmen's Rests: Joint Station; Caledonia Place; Clifton Down (near. Christchurch); College Green; Clifton Down Station. White Hart, Jacob's Wells, demolished.
January 1: Acquisition of new Mansion House to cost £800 per year.
January 4: Froom floods Mina Road (three feet deep).
January 25: St. Mary-le-Port Church re-opened. Restoration cost £2,150.
January 26: St. Michaels Church re-opened. Restoration cost £1,000.
February 13: Nettle Lane in Hampton Road to be widened from a narrow footpath to a carriage road.
February 15: Bristol Museum and Library: since 1863 number of subscribers rose from 188 to 616.
February 24: Avonmouth Dock opened by the mayor in the steamer 'Juno' (first sod August 26, 1868).
March: King Square branch library opened.
March 27: Insurance Companies disband their fire brigades and a Municipal Brigade established six months later.
May 14: Death of Mary Carpenter, aged 70. Red Lodge in Park Row was first Girls' Reformatory in Great Britain: premises purchased by Lady Byron 1854 and managed by Miss Carpenter.
May 29: Bristol Evening News established.
July 18: Sale of site of St. Werburgh's and parsonage and adjoining tenements to London and S.W. Bank. for £21,000.
August 12: Last service in St. Werburgh's.
August 22: Demolition of St. Werburgh's commenced.
September: Black Rock Quarry (working since 1868 for road material) closes to preserve the beauty of the scenery, led to new quarry on the Somerset shore.
September 29: Bedminster Branch of the Free Public Library opens with 7,200 books. October 14: Gale felled 160 trees in Kingsweston Park.
October 17: 800 attend Scientific Soiree at Museum and Library when Prof. Graham Bell explained his invention, the telephone.
October 23: Cathedral nave opened; western towers up to level of roof, commemorating Colston and Butler, completed 1887.
November 15: Giant's Castle opened as first house of The Tavern & Club Co.
December 5: A Tramway locomotive made by Fox Walker & Co. for Rouen, traversed the Stapleton to Redland route.
December 13: Fry's chimney stack erected: 200 ft., 301,000 bricks.
December 31: Rownham Place, Hotwells, old national school room opened as Industrial Exhibition: cake of pure silver weighing 3,000 oz.; working model of vertical steam engine small enough to go under a thimble.
1880
May 22: 28 Trains carried 125,000 in Whit-week.
June 24: Hotwells Tram service opened.
July 20: Temple Church high wall removed and the two acres laid out as Pleasure Ground.
Sept. 20: Bedminster Bridge feared will be unsafe when trains use it.
Nov. 17: Bedminster tram service opened.
Nov. 18: Horfield route opened with steam trains great success
Dec. 20: Exhibiton of Photographic Art by the Bristol & West of England Amateur Photographic Association.
1881
Jan 15: 'The Electric Light' was tested in the four central city streets (not very successful)
Feb 28: Baldwin Street opened by Mayor.
April 20: Cotham Gardens opened.
May 7: 2,424 houses empty in five parishes. Population of Bristol 211,659.
July 26: Industrial Exhibition at Hotwells.
Oct 9: Fire at Canynge's House.
Nov 4: Horse trains replaced steam trains following accidents by frightened bolting horses.
Nov 28 : Electric Light & Power Company proposed.
1882
June 15: Sir Greville Smyth gave Ashton Park to city.
June 30: St. James Churchyard (part near church) laid out with paths, trees and seats.
Sep: Stone Cross set up in St. James Churchyard.
Oct 17: Fourth Musical Festival attended by H.R.H. The Duke of Edinburgh, Queen Victorias second son (d. 1900). Halle conducted.
Oct 24: Most serious floods yet in areas surrounding Baptist Mills in Hereford Street. Bedminster, the waters were 8-ft. deep.
1883
Mar 7: Much water in the quarry in Park Row accidently released in the making of a tunnel houses in Wells Street, Culver Street and Frogmore Street were flooded.
April: Horlield Gaol completed.
October: Proposed railway to London via Andover, with a central station to be built on the future Colston Avenue welcomed by all Bristolians, plans were quashed by agreement between G.W.R. and L. & S.W.R. not to oppose each other.
Nov 21: New Bedminster Bridge opened.
December: Decided to end quarrying on Clifton Down (at top of Pembroke Road) but this rescinded shortly afterwards.
1884
Jan 8: Council support movement to restore Bristol Bishopric.
Feb 19: Council purchased Avonmouth and Portishead Docks.
April 8: Plan for a railway line from Clifton Down Station (with a station near Richmond Hill) to go under Brandon Hill and finish up behind she Royal Hotel in College Green.
May 1: The footbridge, used temporarily during the rebuilding of Bedminster Bridge, was floated upstream to St. Luke's, and opened as Langton Street footbridge.
June 30: New YMCA Hall opened in St. James Square.
July 1: New Fish Market in St. Nicholas Street opened.
Oct 21: Plea to abolish Sunday delivery of mail rejected.
1885
January: Proposed to extend boundary to include Sneyd Park, Horfield, Totterdown, and Knowle.
May: Death of Frederick John Fargus, a Bristolian, whose literary career as 'Hugh Conway' had been of great promise.
May 25: Annual Horse Parade 700 aninials on show.
June 8: Redland Library opened.
June 30: Hope expressed by Council that Sunday Concerts on the Downs be discontinued these were started by a group of gentlemen interested in the welfare of the working classes 20,000 attended, and audiences grew in 1886, but sales of programmes were insufficient to cover costs. Clergy defended the Concerts, so the Council's proposed bye-law was dropped.
July: Merchant Venturers School, Unity Street, opened.
Aug 1: Children's Hospital new building opened. Institution founded 1866 by Mr. Mark Whitwill and friends.
Aug 11: Council consider plan for footbridge from top of Bridge Street to Counterslip.
Aug 29: Death of Mr. E. S. Robinson (Mayor 1866). 54 carriage funeral. 'A colossal and prosperous business remains a monument of his sound judgment and undeviating integrity
Oct 2: Totterdown Bridge over Avon planned.
Nov 16: Colston Hall presentation to Mr. S. Morley on his retirement as M.P. 'Address elegantly illuminated by Mr. J. Lavars'.
Nov 30: Floods at Black Swan, Stapleton Road, up to the counter in bar.
Dec 21: Dr. White's Alinshouses, Temple Street. rebuilt.
1886
June: St. Matthias Park and Mina Road Park opened.
Sept 10: Dean Lane Colliery explosion 8 killed.
Nov 16: Flooding of the Froom to be offset by making a culvert from Broad Weir to Bristol Bridge.
1887
April 9: Baldwin Street, Park Street, Suspension Bridge first bus route started by Bristol Tramways Co.
June 21/25: Queen's Golden Jubilee celebrations 30,000 assembled on Downs.
Oct 14: New road planned top of Park Street to Colston Street (never built).
Oct 22: At Bristol Bridge 25,000 watched unveiling of statue of Samuel Morley; 18 years M.P. for Bristol.
Oct 25: Wine Street Pump disappeared in the previous night.
1888
Jan 21: Rupert Street tram line connecting Horfield branch to St. Augustine Bank opened.
Apr 24: Land (afterwards laid out as Eastville and Victoria Parks) purchased from Sir J. Greville Smyth. June 8: Cathedral illuminated by ' the electric light' to celebrate restorations.
1889
Jan 28: Dean Lane Colliery explosion 4 killed.
July 26: Mayor recommended the new bridge at St. Augustine's be a Swing bridge voting 30 to 8 in favour of a Lifting Bridge.
Sept 29: Mayor's Chapel re-opened.
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