People’s History

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

People's History

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

A series of newspaper articles published in 1883 give us a fascinating insight into working-class Bristolian life at a time of severe economic depression. It was the first real instance of investigative reporting in the city.

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

A women sitting on a wooden stage beside a quilt and a framed historic photograph.

‘There’s a price to be paid’: one woman’s mission to highlight historic buildings’ slave trade links

Adam Quarshie
Adam Quarshie

People's History

From dubious mermaids to harsh prison conditions: how Fred Little documented Bristol a century ago

The Easton-born photographer’s work provides a unique, and sometimes vividly reimagined, perspective on how our city looked during the early years of the 20th century.

Michal Grant
Michal Grant
A woman and a man stand smiling in the hall of a community centre

Area in Focus

How St Paul’s residents fought to make the Malcolm X Centre a space for the community

Isaac Kneebone-Hopkins

People's History

A home for the ‘Hypochondriac, Mad and Distracted’: remembering the ‘madhouses’ of Fishponds

Mike Jempson
Mike Jempson

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

Image of former Bristol police chief John Henderson Watson surrounded by his constables

The Bristol police chief embroiled in corruption who died with a razor in his hand

John Henderson Watson had a long and distinguished police career and was Bristol’s chief constable for 14 years – before his career ended in scandal and his disappearance.

David Hewitt
David Hewitt

Bristol History Podcast

Image of Arthur Rackham's 'Fairy Procession', originally for a 1908 edition of Shakespeare's Midsummer Nights Dream

Listen: Sabrina, goddess of the River Severn

Nicola Haasz discusses the origin myths of Sabrina, goddess of the River Severn, and the cultural responses the river has elicited through history.

Tom Brothwell
Tom Brothwell

Features

Image of actor Paterson Joseph in Turning Point, a four-part video installation by Tony T (credit: Sweet Patootie)

‘Ordinary people do extraordinary things’: exploring Caribbean history with director Tony T

Turning Point, a video installation showing at Bristol Museum and Art Gallery, uses personal stories to paint an immersive picture of Caribbean life during a pivotal period in the early 20th century.

Adam Quarshie
Adam Quarshie

People's History

A history of Bristol’s healthcare for the working classes

It's a myth that there was little or no access to free medical care before the establishment of the NHS in 1948 – but progress was slow, unequal and sometimes grisly.

Eugene Byrne
Eugene Byrne

Bristol History Podcast

Bristol History Podcast: Bristol and the 1918 ‘Spanish’ Flu Pandemic

Arriving at the end of the First World War, the 1918 ‘Spanish’ Flu was one of the deadliest pandemics in human history, killing between 40...

Tom Brothwell
Tom Brothwell
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