Features / Bristol Archives
14 photographs of Bristol businesses then and now
We take another look through from Bristol Archives‘ vast postcard collection, to shed light on the boom days of business in Bristol. From shop windows offering everything from guns and game, to having your horse shod in Westbury On Trym, shopping on the city’s high streets at the turn of the 20th century was a very different experience.
P J Grigg and Son blacksmiths in Westbury On Trym, date unknown. 43207/35/1/72
The building on High Street retains many of its architectural features
14 Stapleton Road with window displays full of postcards, 1906. 43207/35/1/56
Nothing remains of the original Victorian building on Stapleton Road
The front of a corner shop on North Street, Bedminster, covered in hanging game and poultry. Date unknown. 43207/35/1/13
AD Collard’s mosaic tiling has been retained on the outside of what is now The Old Butchers bar
Collins’ shellfish and oyster bar on Colston Avenue, covered in advertisements for other businesses in the same building, date unknown. 43207/35/1/19
The area around the Centre has changed almost unrecognisably
A row of shops on Ashley Road, near the corner of Grosvenor Road, 1905. 43207/35/1/28
The buildings on the edge of St Paul’s remain but have seen better days
The Civil and Military Stores, wine and beer merchants, The Mall, Clifton. Date unknown. 43207/35/1/43
This shop front in Clifton has barely changed
Shoes and clothing in the front windows of 69 and 71 Park Street, 1916. 43207/35/1/47
The shop occupied two units before Park Street suffered bomb damage
Bridles and saddles hang all over this shop in Passage Street, near Castle Park. Date unknown. 43207/35/1/65
Very few older buildings still exist on Passage Street, following extensive bomb damage in the 1940s
WE Watts, a clock and watch manufacturer, 1906. 43207/35/1/67
The original shop, on the corner of Nine Tree Hill, has long gone
Demerara House auction room on the corner of Rupert Street and Quay Street. The figurehead was from the SS Demerara, once the second biggest ship in the world. Date unknown. 43207/35/1/71
Electricity House now stands on this corner, and the figurehead was lost in the 1930s
Florist’s van parked outside 103 Gloucester Road, 1912. 43207/35/1/37
The shop front has been remodelled and the original curved glass windows lost
Window displays full of clothes at Woolway outfitters, 56-60 Stokes Croft. Date unknown. 43207/35/1/46
The department store has now been separated into three units
The Parry Brothers stand outside their Tobacconists on High Street, opposite Castle Park, 1909. 43207/35/1/61
The Perry Brothers have been replaced by a hair salon
A window display full of guns at 17 St Nicholas Street, 1904. 43207/35/1/77
This shop near the Mother’s Ruin pub and St Nicholas Market has had many owners in the past hundred years
Our top newsletters emailed directly to you
