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Temporary blue plaques remember past residents of Totterdown
Totterdown residents had glimpses into their area’s past thanks to blue paper plates acting as temporary plaques.
The handwritten plaques were put up outside houses in Oxford Street and Cambridge Street as part of a community history project that formed part of this year’s Front Room Arts Trail.
The Missing Numbers aimed to highlight the names and trades of the houses’ inhabitants from a century ago, before hundreds of homes and businesses were cleared to make way for a new ring road which was never built.
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Jeremy Routledge from Spike Island production company Calling the Shots created the project with Dr Erika Hanna from the Department of History at the University of Bristol, with funding from the university’s Brigstow Institute.
Jeremy told Bristol24/7: “The Missing Numbers represents the road that was going to be built. They knocked down loads of houses and moved out 5,000 people but the road was never built.”
After the demolition in the 1970s, one street built as a place for railway workers to live after they built Temple Meads was left with only one side of its buildings standing, hence the name of the Missing Names project.
Jeremy added: “The point of this project is to connect people to these places, telling the history and the story of the roads with what was once there.
During the weekend, images of houses and properties that were lost and the residents who once lived there were also projected onto walls:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BqkoQzgnZuy/
“Understanding the history of our cities is an essential part of making good planning decisions for the present and the future,” Erika said.
“The Missing Numbers project brings that history into view, revealing the layers of history present in seemingly ordinary places and bringing some of these stories to life.
“It should also be a rally cry for people to take an interest in the planning decisions happening right now in Bristol.”
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