Bristol - Clifton (Page 1)

Bristol - Clifton (Page 1)

There are a couple of towers that dominate Bristol's skyline, one is Cabot Tower and the other is the Wills University Tower.

Cabot Tower

The foundation stone for this tower was laid in 1897, 400 years after the voyage that discovered America. The tower gives magnificent views across Bristol and many of the photographs on these pages were taken from the top of it. Climbing the steps inside it's nice to see that the builders remembered to build the spiral staircase running clockwise up. Why is this ? Well, in days of old when the main past-time seemed to be hacking bits out of someone else with a sword, you'd need to be able to give your right arm plenty of room to move, thus a defender of a tower would always have the advantage over an attacker, provided the stairs ran up clockwise. The attacker, with his sword arm against the inner wall of the staircase, would have less freedom of movement. Of course, this only worked if both men were right-handed !!

Wills University Tower from the Cabot Tower

This is the Wills University Tower as seen from the top of Cabot Tower

The University is said to be the third most prestigious in the country, only Oxford and Cambridge coming before it. It started life as an University College in 1876 and received its Charter in 1909. The Wills family, which made its money from tobacco, donated a lot of money to the University, and paid for the University Tower. It was designed by Sir George Oatley, and was completed in 1926. The bell tower contains the bell known as Big Tom.

Wills University Tower

The building seen behind the Tower is the City Museum and Art Gallery.

Royal West of England Academy

The Royal West of England Academy

This Academy trains many of our finest artists. The fencing on the left of the picture is there because the Victoria Rooms were undergoing major rennovations and repairs when this photo was taken. During term time Clifton is chock a block with students, some of whom think it very original to pour a couple of gallons of detergent into the Victoria Rooms' fountains on a Friday and Saturday night, either that, or put traffic cones on the heads of the statues. Having said that, I have to admit to grinning to myself when I go past there and see the foam everywhere.

Roman Catholic Cathedral

This strange looking building is actually the Roman Catholic Cathedral in Worcester Road.

One of the main roads running through the area is Pembroke Road. A map of around 1843 shows its original name of Gallows Acre Lane, but by the time a map of 1857 was published it had been changed to the more genteel Pembroke Road. A gibbet stood at the Downs end of this road for many years. There is a story of Shenkin Prothero who was hanged for murder here in 1782. After his hanging his body was left and attracted many sightseers. A rumour spread that his body was seen roaming around Clifton at midnight which caused panic among the local residents. His body was cut down and was supposedly secretly buried on the Downs.

Just off Pembroke Road is Clifton College. This was founded for the education of 60 boys in 1862. The first headmaster was the Reverend John Percival. On the outbreak of WWII the school was evacuated to Bude in Cornwall. Between 1943 and 1945 the buildings became the headquarters of the US 1st Army under the command of General Omar Bradley. He presented the College with his own three star general's banner and an American flag that is still flown on the American Independance Day (4th July). Perhaps the most famous Old Boy is John Cleese of Monty Python fame.

This page created 15th August 2000, last modified 5th May 2005

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