People’s History
A home for the ‘Hypochondriac, Mad and Distracted’: remembering the ‘madhouses’ of Fishponds
For more than 100 years, a family firm profited handsomely from running mental health facilities in Fishponds – sometimes using shocking and bizarre practices. A new book uncovers the startling history of ‘Mason’s Madhouse’.
Spend a penny: A potted history of Bristol’s public toilets before they were closed to save cash
Need a wee? Good luck with that if you’re out and about, as Bristol has only a fraction of the public toilets it once had. Eugene Byrne, trying to hold it in until he gets home, looks at the history of Bristol’s public loos.
‘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.
