The Changing Face of Bristol & its People
Two photographs depicting the same view, one taken a period of time after the other, give us an instantaneous impression of ' then ' and 'now '. Some comparisons show old views that are instantly recognisable, where the natural passage of time and technology has made only slight changes. Other views illustrate major change and it can be difficult to comprehend that an area has altered so much. Unless you have lived through a change and can remember what was there before, there is often no reason to question what building was replaced or how the area functioned in the past.
BRISTOL THEN & NOW - PARK STREET - JUNE 1904 - JUNE 2004
MY,how Bristol's once prestigious Park Street has changed. The picture from a hundred years ago shows just what a graceful place it was to shop in those Edwardian days of long ago. Strolling up, on the left, one could visit Avery's or Gilbey's for your wines and spirits, Arthur Cave or Bowen and Co, for a new suit and then pop into number 45, which housed the Servant's Registry, to see if they had managed to find you that extra housemaid yet.
You could then spend a while in Chicott's (it's still there, a rare survivor) perusing their jewellery before going on to Curry and Paxton to see if your new spectacles had been dispensed. On reaching the top you could see if that new book was in George's, still there today but now belonging to Blackwell's. On the other side of the street were yet more tailors, high-class milliners and costumiers, and at number 22, sandwiched between the grocers and the post office, was Norman Smith, saddler's and harness makers.
You'll notice a complete absence of motor vehicles, probably because the hill was just too steep for those early pioneers not prepared to risk a major breakdown before they had chugged to the top. If you think that there is something missing from the early picture, you're right. It's the University's Will's building with its tall tower, which wasn't erected until 1925.
BRISTOL THEN & NOW - THE MAURETANIA - 1972 - 2004
In 1935 one of Britain’s finest ocean liners, the RMS Mauretania. came to the end of her life and was broken up in Scotland. Built in 1907 she had in her heyday, been the most elegant and fastest ship afloat, winning the Blue Riband in 1908 for the quickest Atlantic crossing by a liner. But, before she made her final voyage to the Scottish breakers yards, Ronald Avery — of the Bristol wine merchant family bought up many of the fixtures and fittings,these included all the stateroom panelling. plasterwork. mirrors and light fittings,as well as the large, glazed dome from the liner’s library.
These were transported to Bristol and installed in the Avervs building at the bottom of Park Street. So in the wine merchant’s HQ, the Mauretania was re-born as a bar and brasserie. And so it remained, a popular Park Street landmark, even doubling as my local when I used to live in a flat above the shops in Park Street between 1988 -1992. But throughout the 80s business dwindled away and in 1994 the doors closed,but not for good, six businessmen put in £100,000 and the following year it re-opened as an up-market venue for the over-25s.
Offering breakfast, lunch and evening meals, they also opened a very successful club for older members, with a capacity of 600. It had three bar, including a cocktail bar as well a two-level dance floor. This summer, after yet another massive re-vamp the old Mauretania re-opened as Three, combing a restaurant and a bar with a nightclub. Luckily many of the old fittings, including panelling from the old liner have been preserved and can still be seen in the private members club.
THEN AND NOW - NORTH STREET - BEDMINSTER - 1935 - 2001
THEN - North Street looking towards Ashton Gate - Bedminster is one of Bristol's oldest suburbs - The early 1900's saw it develop from a separate rural village to an industrial suburb within the city boundary - The population increased as more and more people came to work in Bedminster resulting in the rows of terraced houses leading off the main shopping streets.
NOW - The loss of many industries mainly after the Second World War - Meant that streets such as this have found it hard to retain the locally based prosperity they once enjoyed - One example is Collard the butcher - Once a thriving business but now another empty shop.
THEN AND NOW - NORTH STREET - BEDMINSTER - 1937 - 2001
THEN - North Street looking towards Dean Lane - Agate Street leads off to the right of Fred Windell's grocer's shop - The three men in the road are repairing the wooden setts of the tramlines.
NOW - Some of Bedminster's residential streets were damaged in the war and large areas of housing cleared - Terraced streets were replaced by high-rise flats such as Gaywood House seen here in the distance - Carlton Villas on the left now shoe less uniformity as successive owners have altered windows roofs and exterior appearances.
BRISTOL THEN & NOW - LEWIN'S MEAD - 1900 - 2004
WHEN the 40-bedroom Hotel du Vin opened in Lewin's Mead just before Christmas five years ago at a cost of 4.5 million. it signalled the end of 15 years dereliction for the old sugar warehouse which the hotel had bravely opted to make its Bristol home. The award-winning hotel has succeeded brilliantly in transforming a blighted corner of the city into a great place where everyone wants to go — one of the most sophisticated and upmarket restaurants in town.
There’s certainly a lesson there for at the budding town planners and architects who want to make a name for themselves. In the 18th century Lewin's Mead, along with the Christmas Steps area was fashionable with merchants and members of the Corporation. Then in mid-Victorian times it went downhill and became the haunt of down-and-outs and street urchins.
Then, at the beginning of the last century, it became an industrial area noted for its engineering works. printers. a brewery,a dry salter and at timber merchant. The story of the 1728 buildings sugar warehouse origins is eloquently told in the entrance to the hotel's courtyard but I wonder how many people around today remember when, for over 50 years. it was Capern's Bird Food factory’?
Originally just a Weston-super-Mare chemist with an interest in ornithology, Fred Capern pioneered the manufacture of clean bird seed for domestic pets. His Stokes Croft factory moved to the old sugar warehouse in 1896 and stayed thee until 1956 when it moved to Yatton. It was Capern's that added the ornate hood to the doorway in 1922 (and which is still there today) and gave the plain warehouse its gentrified Georgian look.
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