Last year it was decided that St Pauls Carnival would be held biennially, so, while there will be plenty of community events this summer, full-scale celebrations will not return until 2025. It seems appropriate, therefore, for Andrew Swift to honour this uniquely vibrant corner of the city by taking a walk through the heart of St Pauls, where, as we will see, the spirit of celebration goes back a very long way
We start outside the Full Moon on Stoke’s Croft, which has been welcoming punters for over 300 years, and is now covered by a suitably celestial mural. If you head down the side of the building and carry on past the Bimm Institute, you emerge into Wilder Street, laid out by Peter Wilder in the mid-18th century. The only building to survive from back then, though, is No. 25 on the left, once the Royal Oak beerhouse. Turn left into Upper York Street and left again along Backfields, where in 1790 a circus impresario called Benjamin Handy erected a wooden amphitheatre based on the design of Astley’s Amphitheatre in London (image 1). In 1833, it was superseded by a new amphitheatre, built by another showman, Jem Ryan, but in 1859 the Wesleyans acquired the site and built the school on your right, which later became a coroner’s court and mortuary.
Turn right along Moon Street, heading towards the vibrantly Italianate façade of City Road Baptist Church. Before you reach it, turn right past the only surviving part of the once extensive Stoke’s Croft Brewery, which for over 30 years has been home to the legendary Lakota Club. More recently, the Lakota has also taken over the former coroner’s court.
A left turn by Basement Beer, one of Bristol’s newest microbreweries, takes you along Backfield Lane, where Ducrow Court, on the right, stands on another site with a distinguished history. In 1761 RC Carter, a ‘riding master’ from London, built ‘circular stables’ here in which he laid on public performances of equestrian showmanship, along with other events. In 1769, for example, over 400 spectators cheered on George Milsom, a Kingswood collier, as he beat William ‘The Nailer’ Stevens, a former England champion, in a bare-knuckle boxing bout.
Over 50 years later, in 1824, the circus impresario, Andrew Ducrow, built an even grander amphitheatre here, which he called the National Olympic Arena. In 1861, at the opening of City Road Baptist Church, so many people turned up to hear the celebrity preacher, Charles Spurgeon, that he agreed to address them in Ducrow’s Arena instead. After a crowd of over 2,000 had been admitted, however, it was full to overflowing, and the doors had to be closed against the surge of people trying to enter – at which point a riot broke out, which had to be broken up by the police. The arena was later taken over by the Salvation Army as a citadel – known as the Salvation Circus – before burning down in 1895.
At the end, turn right along Brunswick Street, right again along Wilder Street, and after 85m turn left through the gates of Brunswick Cemetery Gardens. After the Unitarian cemetery here closed in 1963, its gravestones were moved to create an open space in which a series of sculptures by Hew Locke, commemorating companies connected with Bristol, was installed in 2010. They include not only familiar names such as the Merchant Venturers and WD & HO Wills but also Ducrow’s Circus (image 2).
On the far side of the cemetery is Brunswick Square, laid out in 1766. The short terrace on the west side features some of the most exuberant Georgian architecture in Bristol, thanks to the ‘Gibbsian surrounds’ of its doors and windows. The two Greek Revival buildings on the north side – a Unitarian Meeting House (image 4) and a Congregational Chapel bearing a striking resemblance to Birmingham’s Curzon Street station – date from over 60 years later.
Head to the south-east corner of the square and continue east along Pembroke Street. Turn right at the end and then left along Norfolk Avenue, where a plaque at the end commemorates the Bamboo Club. Opened by Tony and Lalel Bullimore in 1966, this was the first Bristol social club to welcome the city’s African-Caribbean community. As well as acting as a community hub, it featured artists such as Bob Marley, Martha Reeves and Desmond Dekker. The Sex Pistols were also booked to play their only Bristol gig here on 21 December 1977, but three days earlier the club was destroyed by fire. It never reopened.
Turn right, then left along Orange Street and first left into Lemon Lane. On the next corner, a plaque on the right marks the childhood home of Elizabeth Blackwell, the first woman to be enrolled on the British medical register. In 1836, at No. 6 Wilson Street along to your right, George Müller established an orphanage. After expanding into three more houses in the street, it was relocated to the newly-built Orphan Home at Ashley Down in 1849.
The four-storey brick building ahead was a boot an shoe factory, built in 1895. Carry straight on into a park laid out in the former graveyard of St Paul’s church (image 3), whose capriciously tiered tower soars pagoda-like above you. It seems fitting that such a flamboyant building should now be home to Circomedia, a centre for contemporary circus and physical theatre training, with its former graveyard transformed into a park with play areas for children and a space for circus and carnival performances.
Head north out of the park and turn left along Bishop Street, where, as in Wilder Street, only one original building survives – the former Portland House pub on the left. Turn right at the end and first left along Chapter Street. At the end is Cave Street, where the redbrick Georgian row to your left still bears a ghost sign from the time when it was Parsons’ Boot Factory.
Head south into Portland Square, laid out in 1787 but not completed until 1823, and, despite the vicissitudes it has suffered over the years, generally reckoned to be Bristol’s ‘most complete and beautiful square’. Walking along its west side, where work is finally underway to rebuild houses lost to bombing, you come to No 2, where one of the square’s best-known residents, William Day Wills – the ‘WD’ in WD & HO Wills – lived from 1835 to his death in 1865. His neighbours included wealthy merchants, retired army officers, clergymen, surgeons and attorneys. There were also a couple of boarding schools, while the Bristol Conservatoire of Music was at No. 22. Standing on the edge of the city, with nothing except fields and market gardens to the north and east, this tranquil square was as desirable – and as exclusive – as anywhere in Clifton.
In the third quarter of the 19th century, however, those quiet fields disappeared under factories and terraced houses, prompting the square’s well-heeled residents to up sticks and seek more refined surroundings. Their former homes were snapped up by industrialists, and by 1879, 10 of Portland Square’s 34 houses had become factories. By 1894, the number of factories had risen to 21, with no less than 15 of them turning out boots and shoes. Eventually, even Wills’s former home, along with the houses on either side, was taken over by the Excelsior Shoe Company.
After St Pauls suffered heavy bombing in the Second World War, the 1950s brought decline and decay as one by one the factories closed. But a new era was about to dawn. St Pauls provided affordable housing for economic migrants, particularly from the Caribbean, and a strong community spirit – forged in such landmark campaigns as the Bristol Bus Boycott – was created.
In 1968, to celebrate their achievements and their heritage, the residents organised the first St Pauls Festival, which, as St Pauls Carnival, has grown in size and reputation to become one of the UK’s most accessible and inclusive events. This corner of Bristol may have changed dramatically over the past 300 years, but the pride and panache which were there
at the start are still very much alive today.
stpaulscarnival.net; circomedia.com; situations.org.uk
