Victoria Street from Bristol Bridge – 1951 and 2014 Another view from Bristol Bridge during the 1951 Festival of Britain, this time looking down Victoria St towards Bristol’s own “leaning tower”, Temple Church. Built on the site of the oval church of the Knights Templar in the late 14th Century, the tower started to lean soon after the lower stages were completed due to subsidence of the alluvial clay it was built on. In the 1951 photo it is possible to see where the masons attempted to correct the lean when they built the third stage, although the tower still leans 5 feet from the vertical. Although tidied up after the war, in 1951 Victoria St still bore the scars of the blitz. On the left, the block was occupied by George’s Brewery - their office building on the corner of Bath St had lost its upper storey in the blitz of November 1940. On the opposite corner of Bath St was Beard’s bookshop - William George set up his business here before moving to his well-known bookshop at the top of Park St. The rank beyond Bath St was relatively undamaged, but sadly Temple Church and many of the surrounding buildings were destroyed. The leaning tower survived, although it was threatened with demolition immediately after the blitz by military personnel who were not from Bristol and who thought the lean had been caused by an HE bomb. On the right, on the far corner of Redcilff St, the headquarters building of E.S. & A Robinson’s was badly damaged by incendiary bombs. In today’s photo the brewery site is being developed as a riverside residential block, the upper storeys of the brewery offices have been rebuilt and one side of Bath St has been restored. The tower of Temple Church is obscured by trees but it is now ringed by modern office blocks. The previous Robinson’s building on the corner has been replaced by One Redcliffe Street, Bristol’s first skyscraper, built in 1964.
Posted on: Thu, 20 Nov 2014 09:49:36 +0000
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