Bristol - Bedminster 4

Bristol - Bedminster 5

Conditions were improved for the people of Bedminster and it was made part of Bristol in 1897. Bedminster saw some of its best years between 1880 and 1930, when the large factories provided plenty of employment. East Street is the main shopping area and is cheaper than some others around the city. Although a lot of money has been spent on it in recent years it still has an air of tattiness that isn't helped by the fact that a good deal of it has been re-paved in discarded chewing gum by the local citizens.

East Street - 1870

East Street ~ 1870

This view is looking up East Street towards the London Inn. The lane to the left was called George's Barton or St. George's Barton and stood roughly where Church Road is now. These 16th, 17th and 18th century houses were demolished in the 1880's.

East Street - 2001

The view of East Street in 2001, showing the same sort of area as the photo above.

East Street around 1920

In December 2001 I received an email from Paul Stanley, who very kindly sent me a copy the photograph above. It is of East Street, Bedminster and was taken about 1896 or 1897.

Not only is Paul from Bristol, with family connections to Bedminster but he also served on HMS Gambia, although a bit later than my father. Paul writes :-

I am very interested in your website because of the information about Bristol (including Bedminster) and because I too was in the Navy and served in HMS Gambia just after your father in 1954/55. Although we don't live there now, my wife and I are Bristolians and went to school there and I also went to the University.
Many of my famiy lived in Southville/Bedminster from the mid 1880's until WWII, and then in various parts of Bristol after that. My grandfather was a professional photographer in Bedminster from about 1896 until the War, though he lived until December 1945. My great uncle and aunt inherited an engineering works from my great grandfather which was virtually next door.
The engineering works can be seen, and in the bottom right hand corner is a name board which actually says "A. E. Stanley" because my grandfather's studio was being fitted out above the works, approximately over where the tram is. A shop front was established later just about where the blinds are behind the tram. I haven't been in the area for years but believe it is where 'Boots' [the chemists] is or was.

My Great Grandfather, on my grandmother's side, Job Apsey Keetch, died in 1897. The ironworks became a motor repair shop/garage later and finally closed down in about 1935. I well remember it. My great uncle and uncle used to run and work in it. My uncle's daughter (my second cousin) still lives in the house in Henleaze to which the family moved in 1935. The photographer's also no longer exists. The shop/studio packed up during the War. I used to visit my grandmother and aunt there during the Blitzes.

East Street - 1993/94

East Street 1993/94

This photograph was also sent by Mr Paul Stanley and shows the same sort of area as the previous picture. The girls in the picture are Paul's granddaughters.

Paul also wrote - "my grandparents' studio/shop fronts were roughly where the logo is above the Boots' shopfront on the photograph. The motor works would be at the beginning of the shop next to the one with the name Hodges, with the red brick frontage above. In fact, the same frontage can be seen in a 1920 picture, it was still there in 93/94."

Job Apsey Keetch with his employees - 1895/6

In February 2002, Paul sent me a copy of the above photograph of his Great Grandfather, Job Apsey Keetch, he wrote :-

I think the photograph was taken around 1895 or 1896. It shows my Great Grandfather, Job Apsey Keetch with his employees in the doorway of the Iron Works in East Street. It's an interesting and amusing picture showing the men with their tools. On Job's left his is son-in-law, Frank Turner, my great uncle, who took over the business and turned it into the car repair garage. I remember the entrance very well.

Many of the Keetch family were Methodists, Job died in 1897 and is buried in Hebron churchyard, Bedminster.

The same month I received an email from someone who wrote

"Hi. I have a Job Apsey who married Hannah Keetch c 1820 in Chardstock, Dorset in my family line. Any relation?"

I've put this person in touch with Paul, it would be interesting to know how this works out, especially as Paul has told me that :-

"My wife and my daughter (mainly) have done a lot of research on the Keetch family and connections, the majority of whom were in the Chard/Chardstock area. My great grandfather (Job Apsey Keetch) was one of 11 children. One of his father's sisters was a Hannah Keetch who we know married twice, the second time in 1835, and so it is quite possible that her first marriage was in 1820. I don't know the names of her husbands but my daughter might. It seems a bit of a coincidence that she married a Job Apsey, but these two first names may have been quite common at that time."

Bedminster is full of public houses, most of which are a far cry from the upmarket places that are filling the city centre and the old bank premises in Corn Street. Wandering around the area you get the impression there's a pub every hundred yards or so, but there is nowhere near as many as there once was. In 1843 there were 33, 1864 - 24, 1884 - 79, 1904 - 101, 1924 - 99, 1944 - 71, 1954 - 54, 1972 - 48, 1975 - 28. Most are fairly ordinary, but two stand out as pieces of great architecture in their own right.

The London Inn

The London Inn ~ 2000

The road to the left is British Road, the London Inn originally stood across the entrance to this road, which at the time was known as Back Lanes. In 1895 the old London Inn was demolished and rebuilt slightly to the north of its original position to allow access to this road. In 1884 the South Bristol Gazette carried a picture of the Inn and the following passage :-

"A tortuous grimy street is the main thouroughfare of Bedminster. Medieval gabled houses, sheds and tan-pits drag their unsightly lengths from the rickety bridge that spans the Cut to the pretentiously named but antiquated hostelry known as the London Inn. On the outskirts of this chaotic mass of bricks and mortar flowed an open cess-pool, the odiferous Malago; and very mal it was ... with it's bed of cabbage stalks, broken crockery ware, old boots and nameless horrors for which as a sepulchre for dogs and cats, it has become famed the country round."

The London Inn - 1884

The London Inn ~ 1884

This page created 4th March 2001, last modified 5th May 2005

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