Bristol in the Edwardian Period

A view of what was then known as St. Augustine’s Bridge at the Tramways Centre, as it looked about 100 years ago. The only buildings to survive to the present day are the tower of St. Stephen’s Church to the right of upper centre, and the two blocks of buildings each side of Baldwin Street to the right of centre. The exposed river to the right of the bridge was covered over in the late 1930’s to form the City Centre Gardens, which have again in turn been totally revamped for the new millennium. Every building to the left of Clare Street has now completely disappeared, among them the Sun Insurance Offices, immediately adjoining that street, which actually did survive to the mid-1960’s, only to be thoughtlessly demolished and replaced by an office block in the typically lacklustre architectural style of that decade. What a wonderful frontage this would have made to the Centre, had it only survived to the present day! The corner building to the right of Baldwin Street has lost its "tower" since this view was taken. Note the line of horse-drawn taxicabs in the middle of the bridge, and also the electric trams to the left of them. To the extreme right can be seen the prow and bowsprit of a cargo sailing ship, which were still largely in use in that era.