Schools Learning Zone
TEACHER NOTES
page 1 of 7
Bristol Diversity Trail (Multiethnic)
E.
Cabot Tower to the old city
E. Cabot Tower to the old city - Part One
Cabot Tower
Cabot Tower was built as a memorial to Cabot, and was opened in 1897 to
commemorate John Cabot’s 1497 journey to the New World and the coast of
North America. Cabot and his family were ‘incomers’ to Bristol, or what we
might today call ‘economic migrants’ who came to Britain to make their
fortune. Cabot persuaded Henry VII to pay the cost of the voyage in order to
find a new route to the spice islands, but instead landed in Newfoundland,
Canada. His ship was lost on a later voyage to the area.
method was later called ‘macadamization’ – from which we get the term
tarmac.
To discuss with pupils:
McAdam was a Scot who transformed transport, but there is no memorial to
him here. Should there be a memorial to him in Bristol?
The path approaching the tower is steep and there are some steps to get to
its base and see a panorama of the city. There is no lift inside the tower.
Nearby in…
Berkeley Square
John Loudon McAdam, the Scottish road engineer, lived here. He
revolutionised road construction by developing a system of crushed stone
and grit, and creating a camber or curve to the surface to drain water away.
In 1804 he was appointed as General Surveyor of Roads for the Bristol
Corporation, and became surveyor to the Bristol Turnpike Trust in 1816. His
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TEACHER NOTES
page 2 of 7
Bristol Diversity Trail (Multiethnic)
E.
Cabot Tower to the old city
P
E. Cabot Tower to the old city - Part Two
Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery, Queens Road
Portrait of Raja Rammohun Roy
The large oil portrait of the Indian reformer, by H. Perronet Briggs, hangs on
the right hand main staircase. Drawn from life, the portrait was created a
year before the early death of Roy, and shows him in costume as an
Ambassador for the Mogul Emperor Shah Alam II.
Raja Rammohun Roy (1772-1833) was a Hindu and a Bengal noble who
came to Bristol from India in 1831, to meet with others who wanted to
develop a dialogue between different cultures and religions.
He was a reformer, and spoke out against suttee, the Hindu practice of
widows burning themselves to death on the funeral pyres of their dead
husband.
Painting of St James’s Fair
Local tradesmen looked forward to market days and holidays as an
opportunity to make money, and Bristol had two of the largest fairs in
England – Temple Fair, in early March, and St James’s Fair in early
September. Both events attracted lots of traders and visitors. In the 1750s
John Norton and Sons, merchants from London and Virginia, rented a
nearby warehouse for ten days and filled it with goods from the fair to take to
the American colonies to resell. St James’s fair was ended in the Victorian
period because it was felt to encourage rowdy behaviour.
To discuss with pupils:
Does the City Museum adequately explore ‘the migrant experience’ and tell
the story of what it was like to settle in Bristol in the past?
Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery, Queens Road.
Ask at the museum reception where you can see these art works…
From the entrance of the Museum, turn left and walk along Queens Road.
Where the road divides, go ahead (left) into Park Row.
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TEACHER NOTES
page 3 of 7
Bristol Diversity Trail (Multiethnic)
E.
Cabot Tower to the old city
P
The Park Row (Orthodox) Synagogue
participation in public life. Reform in 1858, during the mid-Victorian period,
allowed Jewish citizens who became Members of Parliament to swear an
oath using a Hebrew Bible kept in the House of Commons treasury box.
For further information on the building visit this website:
http://www.jewishgen.org/JCRUK/community/bri1/Synagogue/Synagogue_menu.htm
The website for the congregation:
http://www.brijnet.org/bristol/
Cross the road and continue down Park Row to just past the multi-storey car
park on your right, and turn right down Lodge Street. Walk until you can turn
right into Trenchard Street, which runs into Frogmore Street, from where you
can turn into Orchard Avenue and then into…
The Park Row Synagogue.
This building is not open to the public, except on special occasions.
This is the first purpose built synagogue built in Bristol, for the city’s Hebrew
(Orthodox) congregation. It was consecrated on 7 September 1871, and
built to a design by Hyman H Collins, of London, at a cost of £4,000. A
number of the internal fittings and ritual items were transferred here from the
community’s earlier Weaver’s Hall and Temple Street synagogues.
During the 19th century, although prejudice against the Jewish community
continued, there was a gradual increase in Jewish tolerance and Jewish
Orchard Street
These houses are older than they actually look. They were houses for the
comfortably off, and their location means that a lot became offices when it
was no longer fashionable to live in city centres. Once it was part of a busy
community. The refugee Huguenot community in Bristol used a chapel that
once stood on the corner of this street as their place of worship from 1726.
Although many of the incomers were poor and had lost everything, some of
those who arrived were wealthy, and had trading connections to powerful
Bristolians and to family members in the Protestant parts of the Netherlands,
North America and the Caribbean. Some of the Huguenots also became
wealthier through their involvement in the Transatlantic Slave Trade.
During the late 17th and early 18th centuries wealthier members of the local
Huguenot community were able to integrate into the local merchant elite,
with two serving as Lord Mayor – James La Roche (1750) and David
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page 4 of 7
Bristol Diversity Trail (Multiethnic)
E.
Cabot Tower to the old city
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Peloquin (1751) – and Henry Cruger serving as a Whig MP for Bristol at the
same time as the Irish born Edmund Burke MP.
To discuss with pupils:
The history of the communities who lived in these little streets in the past is
not well known. Should there be interpretation boards with information for
the public to read around the city?
Turn left into Denmark Street and walk its length to St Augustine’s Parade.
Then turn left and look above the entrance to the Hippodrome Theatre where
you can see…
Statue of Demerara
The Bristol Hippodrome was designed by Frank Matcham, and opened in
late1912.
Above the entrance is a reconstruction of the figurehead from the ill-fated
steamship the ss Demerara showing a figure representing an African.
William Patterson’s Demerara cost £42,000 and was the second largest ship
built in Bristol (only 2.5m shorter than the ss Great Britain). When Demerara
was launched on the 27 September 1851, the movement of the ship was too
fast; it swung across the river and became wedged at the double bend in the
River Avon under the towers of Brunel’s then incomplete Suspension Bridge.
Statue of Demerara, Bristol Hippodrome.
The ship was refloated, but wedged again the next day. It was returned to
dock and written off due to the damage it had suffered in the process. After
the Demerara was dismantled the statue was placed above the entrance to
Demerara House in the city; the original crumbled when moved to be placed
at this site in the 1930s.
Further along (to your right as you stand in front of the statue) the road
curves slightly left to Colston Street where you can see the Victorian…
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TEACHER NOTES
page 5 of 7
Bristol Diversity Trail (Multiethnic)
E.
Cabot Tower to the old city
P
Colston Hall
The front of this building was designed by architects Foster and Wood, in the
Bristol Byzantine-style to look like an Italian renaissance palazzo or palace.
It was built in 1869 – 1873 and stands on the site of a large Tudor house,
garden and grounds which belonged to Sir John Young. Legal records from
the time tell us that a black Bristolian was employed as a garden watchman
or security guard here in the mid-16th century, making this the earliest
known reference to a person of African ethnicity and their workplace in
Bristol.
To discuss with pupils:
Is Sir John’s garden security guard an important historical figure? Is he
worth remembering in historical accounts of Bristol?
Colston Hall, designed by architects Foster and Wood in the Bristol Byzantine-style
to look like an Italian palazzo or palace.
Turn back and continue along St Augustine’s Parade to the large neoclassical church…
St Mary on the Quay
Until the middle of the 20th century this church was on the quayside and
waterfront. Today the river and the Quay are still there, but covered over.
The church was was consecrated as a place of Catholic worship in 1843.
Between the 1840s and 1857 the number of Catholics worshipping locally
rose from around 500 to more than 2,000, perhaps due to The Great Famine
in Ireland (1848) and the demand for workers in Bristol.
At the entrance to the building is a war memorial plaque commemorating the
fallen of the church community during the Great War (1914-1918). The first
of the names is George Archer-Shee, killed in the early stages of the
fighting. This experience formed the basis of playwright Terrence Rattigan’s
play The Winslow Boy – set at naval school with a cadet incorrectly accused
of theft and expelled, followed by his family’s long but eventually successful
battle to clear his name.
St Mary on the Quay.
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TEACHER NOTES
page 6 of 7
Bristol Diversity Trail (Multiethnic)
E.
Cabot Tower to the old city
P
Walk along the road along St Augustine’ Parade, which continues in to
Colston Avenue. In the pedestrianised space formed between the roads,
and to your right is the…
Statue of Edmund Burke MP
Edmund Burke (1729 –1797) was an Irish born Bristol resident, who served
as one of the two Whig Members of Parliament for the city in 1774 –1780.
He became famous for his democratic views, speeches against excessive
punishments for criminals, support for fair taxation and a balanced treatment
of the American colonies, writings about the American and French
Revolutions, and criticism of abuses by the East India Company. As a junior
government Minister, Paymaster of the Forces, and a Privy Councillor he
carried out anti-corruption reforms.
He was a protestant, but became unpopular with some local voters after
expressing support for a relaxation of the laws restricting Catholics from
holding office, from inheriting property and running schools. He lost his seat
in 1780, as a result of his moderation and other’s prejudice, and later
became MP for Malton. Of course very few people could actually vote – no
women at all, no working class men and very few of the middle classes. In
1831, before electoral reforms, only 6,000 of the 104,000 locals could vote.
English prejudice against the Irish has often been the cause of tension
across the isles, and when Burke retired from Parliament it was partly due to
the arguments over relaxing the laws which severely limited Catholics’
participation in politics and government work.
To discuss with pupils:
The Irish community in England has often been given a hard time; Burke
campaigned for the rights of everyone. Should there be more public
information about what he believed and did on this site?
Statue of Edmund Burke (1729-97).
Continue along Colston Avenue, past Christmas Steps, to…
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TEACHER NOTES
page 7 of 7
Bristol Diversity Trail (Multiethnic)
E.
Cabot Tower to the old city
P
Lewins Mead Unitarian Chapel
The chapel was designed by William Blackburn. It was built between 178791 for the Unitarians outside of the city centre in an area near the waterfront.
This chapel was at the centre of local campaigning. Alderman Richard Bright
was chair of the Protestant Dissenters Committee, which also included
Bristol Baptists, Congregationalists and Quakers. The Unitarians were
important to social reform in Bristol – it was Mary carpenter the Unitarian
reformer who invited Rammohan Roy to the city.
Until the repeal of the 1661 Corporation Act, Test Act of 1673, and the
Catholic Emancipation Act of 1829, people who did not attend and worship
within the Church of England were unable to hold national political office,
graduate and receive a degree, or serve as an officer in the army or navy.
This meant that the Protestant dissenting churches and Roman Catholics
formed tight knit communities centring on their places of worship and
community networks. During the early 19th century these groups were
lobbying hard to change the rules which shut them out from local and
national government service.
The Lewins Mead Congregation of English Presbyterians was at the centre
of local dissenter attempts to gain tolerance of their views. Their local leader,
Alderman Richard Bright, was chair of the Protestant Dissenters Committee,
established in 1790 to lobby for the repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts.
Lewins Mead Unitarian Chapel.
Next door to the chapel, and now a very exclusive hotel, was a sugar house
where sugar was refined. So this was once a smelly, busy place and an
industrial location close to the port.
To discuss with pupils:
There are lots of sites associated with the slave trade in Bristol. Are trails
the best way to tell people about the city’s history?
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