Eugene Byrne

19th century photograph of Bristol Harbour, with large boats on the River Frome in the foreground.

People's History

Blockade runners: The grim history of the Bristol ships that helped US slave states

The American Civil War ended 160 years ago with the victory of the Union and the abolition of slavery. But many Bristolians supported the losing side and indirectly profited from enslaved labour.

Eugene Byrne
Eugene Byrne

People's History

A photograph of terraced housing and a harbour from photograph of Bristol in 1880.

How a 19th-century journalist revealed the extent of poverty in Victorian Bristol

Eugene Byrne
Eugene Byrne

People's History

An 19th-century illlustration showing a group of people, imagined to be in Elizabethan England, throwing objectss at a cockerel.

Cock-throwing, dog-tossing and bare-knuckle boxing: the brutal history of Pancake Day in Bristol

Eugene Byrne
Eugene Byrne

People's History

‘An intolerable anachronism’: it’s 60 years since the last hanging took place in Bristol

On 17 December 1963, the final judicial execution in our city brought a long history of local executions to an end. We look back on what happened in Horfield in 1963, and the campaign to end the death penalty.

Eugene Byrne
Eugene Byrne

People's History

Spend a penny: A potted history of Bristol’s public toilets before they were closed to save cash

Eugene Byrne
Eugene Byrne

People's History

A history of Bristol’s healthcare for the working classes

Eugene Byrne
Eugene Byrne

People's History

Image of the remnants of an anti-aircraft gun position at Purdown, Bristol. Nearby military huts were squatted after the Second World War (credit: Eugene Byrne)

‘Staking a claim’: how the postwar housing crisis led to a mass squatting movement in Bristol

After the Second World War, Britain faced an acute shortage of homes. The remarkable outbreak of civil disobedience that followed is being remembered as part of a two-month festival of working-class history in South Bristol.

Eugene Byrne
Eugene Byrne

People's History

30 years since the Hartcliffe riots

Local historian Eugene Byrne explores the role of race, the media and the passage of time in how society views three riots that have taken place in the city.

Eugene Byrne
Eugene Byrne

Features

From homes for heroes to a housing crisis: a potted history of Bristol’s council housing

This year marks a century since the start of serious council housebuilding in our city. After years of neglect, a resurgence in social homes is long overdue

Eugene Byrne
Eugene Byrne