You can see this image ( in huge detail ) and over 600 others by registering for free on britainfromabove.org.uk yes, Its that dreadful day again 77 years on where we remember the first big air raid; SUNDAY 24th NOVEMBER 1940...........Now approaching the verge of living memory in its intact pre war state this aerial photo shows Bristol July 1930, a thriving medieval core shopping area ten years before WW2. The area in red is now Castle Park which contained 500 premises. this was the true heart of the old city until it was 80% destroyed in three huge air raids; 24th November 1940, 3rd January 1941 and Good Friday 1941. The 20% that survived and carried on trading were demolished between 1959 and 1969. So altogether we lost 18 acres of historic city streets.
Main sites of interest:.....1) The Dutch House on the corner
of Wine St and High St. 2) Jones’s department store fronting Wine St and High
St. 3) Baker & Baker Dept Store (retail section), wrapping around Wine St,
the Cheese Market and Mary Le Port St. 4) Baker & Baker dept store
(wholesale section), fronting Mary Le Port St and Bridge St. 5) Mary Le Port
Church, with tower 72 feet to the battlements and south facing graveyard,
surrounded by Buttermarket Passage into Bridge St. 6) The Scholastic stationers
on the corner of High St and Bridge St. 7) Bridge St, with the south side 500
foot stepped terrace. Back of Bridge St faced the river. 8 ) The Bank Hotel,
number 3 Bridge St. 9) St Peters Hospital 1402. Rebuilt 1612. 10) St Peters
Church in Peter St, with 84 foot tower, the base being Norman. 11) Dolphin St,
with St Peter’s Pump on the corner with Peter St. 12) The News Theatre, Peter
St. 13) The Regent Cinema 1928, Castle St. 14) Little Peter St with Lakes
Oyster Bar, The Bear and Rugged Staff and The Cat and Wheel on the corner with
Castle Green. 15) Llewellyn and James Brass works, Castle Green and Cock and
Bottle Lane, site of the great Castle Keep 1135-1656. 16) Castle Green, with 2
chapels facing each other. 17) Cock and Bottle Lane and the Star Inn. 18)
Bristol Co-Op, Castle St also wrapping around Cock and Bottle Lane, Castle
Green and Education Centre facing over Broadweir 19) Entrance to Castle Moat
and Queen St bridge. 20) Marks and Spencer, wrapping around Castle St, Tower St
and Castle Green. 21) Castle Green School 1887, and Upper, Middle and Lower
Terrace and Hartland Place. 22) Tower St. 23) Boots the chemist, corner of
Tower St and Castle St containing the vaulted entrance chamber to the castle’s
great hall. 24) British Home Stores, facing Castle St and Tower Hill, with
concrete raft over the castle moat. The huge 265 feet high chimney to the right
belonged to the Bristol Tramways and Carriage Company Electricity Generating
Station next to St Philips
