Bristol

Bristol Cathedral

Continuing our series of walks with our friends in Bristol (last time we did a city walk in Bath), we did part of the Bristol Heritage Walk. Constrained by the limited options for parking, we started at the Abbey gateway.



The central archway is Norman, while the upper section dates from the 16th century.

We then had a short tour of the cathedral, although unfortunately the fine Norman Chapter House was closed (the cathedral was originally the abbey church). The cathedral we see today was built is a series of discontinuous phases: the east end of the cathedral up to the south transept was completed by the middle of the 14th century, the transepts and crossing tower were completed between 1470 and 1515, while the west towers and nave are Victorian (by GE Street). The view from College Green shows that Street made a pretty good job of harmonising his additions with the much earlier work.


On the far side of College Green is Langford's Electric Clock. It is thought to be the first public clock in Bristol to show GMT rather than the local time. The widespread adoption of GMT was driven by the need for coordination between the newly formed railways and dates from the 1840s. Previously local solar time was used - so presumably the differences between places were quite small.



A few feet further on is St Mark's, The Lord Mayor's Chapel. Pevsner explains that it was founded in 1220 as the chapel of the Hospital of St Mark and was bought by the Corporation in 1541 and became its official place of worship in 1721. It has been much altered over the years since its foundation. We admired the 16th century Spanish tiles in the chapel.



And a little further on we were delighted by something more modern: this signed Banksy wall painting. The blue splodges are not original.



The official heritage trail goes north along Park Street from College Green, but we headed south, which provided a nice view back to the Council House (started 1938), which makes up the third side of College Green.



We walked down to Broad Quay and along past the Watershed Media Centre and the Fire House and through a plaza where the Winter Olympics were showing on a large screen.



We then crossed Pero's Bridge, built in acknowledgment of the slave trade. I learned from Wikipedia that the bridge is named after "Pero" who lived from around 1753 to 1798, arriving in Bristol probably from the Caribbean island of Nevis in 1783, as the slave of the merchant John Pinney. We then walked up to the splendid Queen Square, laid out in 1699. It is apparently the second largest square in the country (after Lincoln's Inn).


Much of the square was burned during the reform riots of 1831 and subsequently rebuilt. These are some of the least altered houses.



Then along Queen Charlotte Street to find the wonderful Granary in the so-called Bristol Byzantine style.



By now we were cold and in need of wine and a gourmet lunch and so we headed back to the car to be taken away to enjoy them. We were not disappointed!

Conditions: Bright but very cold.

Distance: only about 1.5 miles.

Rating: Four stars. Full of interest. We look forward to doing the rest of the trail in the future.