Martin's Bird Blog & Nature Photos

Bristol City Centre walk

11th April 2024

Our main aim for the day was to get some exercise without getting muddy. Accordingly we decided to visit some of the churches in and around the city centre.

We started at St Mary Redcliffe – a masterpiece of gothic architecture. Elizabeth I described it as : “The fairest, goodliest and most famous parish church in England” during her visit to Bristol in 1574.

For me it’s not the exterior, very impressive as it is, but the interior which justifies Elizabeth I famous quote.

I could not do justice to the exterior from this angle but did not want to take on the traffic which passes just in from of the north front.

The north porch – historically renowned because it houses the ‘Muniment Room’ AKA the’Chatterton Room’

The north porch – it felt as though we had already entered the church

The north porch is one of only three hexagonal porches in England and the most significant by far

The entrance to the church itself

The west window

The nave towards the chancel, altar and the Lady Chapel beyond. The strong vertical emphasis of the towering pillars and soaring arches draw the eye upwards to the spectacular rib vaulting.

A view through the arches towards the north transept

The north transept

The pulpit

St Mary Redcliffe is a very light building. In part this is because the stone is light in colour but it is also because of the clerestory, the second level of the nave walls in which there are large clear glazed windows.

The clerestory is so high that it needs flying buttresses as support – here from the south

The chancel and altar

The altar with stone reredos and the Lady Chapel behind

The ambulatory leading to the Lady Chapel

View from the chancel towards the west window

The Lady Chapel

The east window of seven lights

The altar of The Lady Chapel and the magnificent modern stained glass windows.
The Lady Chapel windows were designed by Harry Stammers (1902-1969) who was one of the greatest stained glass artists of the 20th century and the founder of the “York School” of stained glass. They were installed between 1960 and 1965.

There are many displays of historical interest in the church- here about the church’s connection to the boy poet Thomas Chatterton and to Handel and Hogarth. In the commentary about Thomas Chatterton there is no reference that he was a boy at Colston’s School. It seems that, as well as removing all the windows in honour of Edward Colston, since the stripping of the Colston statue in 2020 any references to Edward Colston have been removed.

The effigy of William Canynges whose extraordinary career saw him become an MP, Lord Mayor of Bristol five times and, after the death of his wife, take up holy orders as a priest.

View of the south side

The south garden

I took so many other photos of St Mary’s but in order to cover other aspects of our walk I will omit here and probably come back to in another blog.

We then headed across the river towards the city centre. We were heading for St Nicholas’s Church on the left in the distance.

We walked through Queen’s Square with its many fine, historic buildings.

Past the Granary which in my younger days was a venue for pop music events

… on past the Llandoger Trow (the opening setting for Robert Louis Stevenson’s Robinson Crusoe). The famous jazz pub “The Old Duke” is on the right with the Old Vic Theatre beyond.

When we reached St Nicholas’s Church we could not visit it as they were hosting holiday clubs for children.

We settled first for a visit to St Nicholas Market

… avoided the temptation of the various street foods from all around the globe

One of the “nails” in front of The Corn Exchange where corn merchants inspected the quality of the corn and paid up front – hence the expression “paid on the nail”

Eventually we arrived at St Stephen’s Church

St Stephen’s website:

“Designated by English Heritage as a grade I listed building, Saint Stephen’s Church lies on the ancient riverside boundary of the Anglo Saxon sacred city. Work on diverting the river Frome to form Bristol Harbour was completed in 1248. In the same century Saint Stephen’s was developed by a Benedictine cell from Glastonbury Abbey.

The harbour church was totally rebuilt in 1470 by the parishioners and the Abbey of St Peter Gloucester.

In 1703 the Great Storm (which blew down Eddystone lighthouse and damaged Widecombe-in-the-Moor and Fairford churches amongst many other buildings) damaged the roofs, clerestory and the pews of the nave and south aisle. The storm also caused an immense high tide which flooded the church to a depth of five inches.

The uniform appearance of the perpendicular town church was perfected again in the various late 19th century restorations (1875-1898). These unaccountably destroyed the original six-light east window, replacing it with the current one of five lights.”

St Stephen’s now houses some fine contemporary art, in particular the Bristol Reconciliation Reredos

St Steven’s website:

‘On Friday 21 January, 2011, the work of Saint Stephen’s artist-in-residence, Graeme Mortimer Evelyn was unveiled in Bristol’s parish church. A first for the Heritage Lottery Fund, the Bristol Reconciliation Reredos is set to become an universal symbol of hope and a destination for international visitors. A contemporary artwork, its four relief panels are carved from MDF, painted in bold primary colours, and fitted into the recently-restored stonework. Extraordinarily, the carved lamb of God reredos (behind the altar) had been covered up since the 1870s. Saint Stephen’s was the harbourside church during the slavery era. The Bristol Reconciliation Reredos seeks to respond to this complex legacy inspired by themes of hope and healing.”

The Bristol Reconciliation Reredos

As we were so close to the plinth where Edward Colston’s statue once stood we continued our walk through the city centre.

The plinth upon which stood Edward Colston’s statue

The plinth has no reference to the fact that Edward Colston’s statue stood here: the city’s councillors cannot come to an agreement upon what should be written.

No time left to visit St Mary’s on the Quay

I remember when this was the home of the “Bristol Evening World” and when on a Saturday evening Bristol published two sports newspapers: The Pink’Un (from Bristol Evening World) and the Green’Un (from Bristol Evening Post). I suppose the sports news on the internet is some sort of progress but many would not agree.

Finally a walk under St John’s on the Wall Church (which unfortunately was closed)

… and past the former Everard’s Printing Works (now the newly opened Clayton Hotel)

… and without stopping at the recently refurbished Grand Hotel

My last photo is of All Saints’ Church at the top of Corn Street. This church holds the tomb to Edward Colston. Although the church is deconsecrated, it once was used by Bristol City Council as offices. Sadly, probably for political reasons, it is now closed up.

A photo of the tomb of Edward Colston in All Saints Church, that I took some years ago, listing many of his philanthropic deeds


A very successful walk featuring many interesting places that we want to visit again soon.

References:

Simon Jenkins; England’s Thousand Best Churches Penguin Books 2000

The Buildings of England North Somerset and Bristol Nikolaus Pevsner Penguin Books 1958 1998


St Mary Redcliffe website: http://www.stmaryredcliffe.co.uk

St Stephen’s website: https://www.saint-stephens.com