Skip to main content
Castle Green as it was 1930.

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




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Just a Boy From Bristol

JUST A BOY FROM BRISTOL Chapter One Through the eyes of a child   On the 3rd September 1939 a war started that would change the course of history. It also denied millions of children across the world the opportunity for a normal, happy childhood. I know, because I was one of them. My father had re-enlisted in the Royal Navy as soon as the storm clouds of war had started to gather over Europe. He left my mother to bring up two young children alone, in poverty, and in what was a scary, changing world.  My mother was an incredibly beautiful young woman, but she was emotionally fragile. She was a wild, scatty, free spirited, capricious butterfly, who was constantly fluttering around, unable to settle. In many ways she was totally unsuited to the task in hand, but she was a mother, and she did what mothers do best. She cared for me; she did it well, and I will be eternally grateful to her. Mum, I thank you for teaching me how to...
33 comments
Read more
Don't talk to me about relegation battles. My father came home from the war in November 1945. He was a complete stranger to me, having been away fighting the Germans and their submarines for almost 6 of the first 8 years of my life. I had been just a toddler when he had sailed off to war, and I had no memories of him.  At first, our relationship was a difficult one, with both parties suspicious and jealous of one another, but Mums are shrewd, clever operators, and my mother was no exception to the rule.. She was soon busily building some bridges, and slowly but surely, Dad and I started to talk, like a father and son should do. We quickly discovered that we had one strong common bond...football. There had been no professional football during my young life, but I was already football crazy. My vivid imagination had been fuelled by the hundreds of stories I had read in various newspapers; articles I had digested from the sepia col...
Post a Comment
Read more

It was long ago and far away

Johnny, Frank, Paddy, Mike The first cut is the deepest run the words of the old Rod Stewart song, and no truer words have ever been written. I was reminded of it a few weeks ago when the four old boys ( pictured above ) met up for a quiet drink, a chat on current affairs, and an occasional stroll down memory lane. We all grew up together a long  time ago in war ravaged Bristol. With a combined age of 300 years, we share a million memories of our beloved city. We sat and watched the closing ceremony of the 2012 Olympic Games. The conversation switched seamlessly back to 1948, for this was the year when London  last hosted the Olympics. Suddenly, we fell silent, all eyes turned to me, and we all burst out laughing. You see,1948 was the year that I fell in love for the very first time. I was only eleven when it happened. She was a new girl on the block...Her name was Maria Theresa, a tall, slender, elegant, Italian girl who spo...
Post a Comment
Read more