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Temple Parish - 2

Like St. Peter's on Castle Green, Temple Church suffered severe bomb damage during World War II and the main church, although still standing, is now just a roofless, hollow shell. Army engineers called to demolish very badly damaged, but still standing bombed buildings, almost pulled the tower down. It had to be explained to them that the tower had been leaning like this for around 600 years.

Temple Church the day after the bombing of 24th November 1940
From "Bristol Blitzed" by Reece Winstone (Reece Winstone, 1976, plate 112)

Victoria Street the days after the bombing of 24th November 1940
The shops destroyed here were numbers 42 - Cashmore's Glass; 44 - Sloan's Electrical; 46 - Cloutman Smith; 48 - Foster Engineering; 50 - Silcock's Wireless and 52 - Callandar's Cables
From "Bristol Blitzed" by Reece Winstone (Reece Winstone, 1976, plate 115)

Temple church (photo from 1999)

Temple Church window
This is all that now remains of what was obviously once a very ornate window

Buildings dating back to 1660 nestle around the foot of the tower

Tower Street in the 1880's
These buildings were much older than that.
117 Victoria Street, also known as 105 Temple Street was once a pub called "The Crabbe's Well"
The walls were 4ft thick and the floor level was a foot lower than the pavement
The buildings are actually dated back to 1587
Image from "Bristol in the 1880's" by Reece Winstone (Reece Winstone, 1978, plate 86)

In 1712, the Rev. William Goldwin, master of Bristol Grammar School, described the Great Gardens in Temple parish as being "fragrant with jasmin, roses and orange flowers, and beauteous with fantastically cut yew and holly trees". Temple Gardens are part of the church grounds. The gardens were replanted in 1880 but Latimer, writing in 1893, says that the Great Garden had become "black, dismal and sordid" and it seems they stayed that way until 1998 when they were finally transformed into something approaching their former beauty.