Bristol 1819-1910

Bristol black & white photographs in the Victorian & Edwardian era

Victorian Bristol a time of great innovation and change - Queen Victoria ascended to the British throne in 1837, the year that saw the launching in Bristol of Brunel’s innovative transatlantic steamship the ss Great Western. During Victoria’s reign the city would go on to see the completion of Brunel’s Great Western Railway and its associated rail routes across the South West, the launch of Brunel’s propeller-driven, steam-powered iron ship the ss Great Britain and, following Brunel’s death in 1859, the completion of his magnificent Clifton Suspension Bridge, built as a tribute to him by his fellow engineers.

The Bristol lower class was divided into two sections: “the working class” (labourers), and “the poor” (those who were not working, or not working regularly, and were receiving public charity). The lower class contained men, women, and children performing many types of labor, including factory work, seamstressing, chimney sweeping, mining, and other jobs.

Both the poorer class and the middle class had to endure a large burden of tax. This third class consisted of about eighty-five percent of the population but owned less than fifty percent of the land.

Edwardian Britain

Britain in 1902 was one of the richest and most powerful states in the world. The 11 million square miles of the British Empire covered nearly a quarter of the globe and there were 400 million subjects. Just over 10% of people owned nearly half the total income.

Capturing on photographs those houses, shops, streets, factories, offices, warehouses, public houses, chapels and schools of Edwardian Bristol in a bygone age. Buildings which have disappeared and for a leisurely age before Bristol's streets succumbed to the noise and pollution of the motor car.

''It was a period of huge economic change, and Bristol reflected this with a wide range of manufacturing industries, a thriving commerce as well as a professional middle-class. There were also sizeable Quaker and Unitarian communities who believed in equal education for girls and boys. These factors provided a ready-made base of well-educated women eager to contribute to social reform.''

252 photos | 6,396 views

items are from between 22 Nov 2007 & 24 Nov 2007.