Part 3: Famous and HistoricCrossing another swing bridge we can see the spire of St Mary Redcliffe which, according to Queen Elizabeth is "the fairest, goodliest, and most famous parish church in England” (that’s QE1, of course).
If we turn towards it we soon come The Hole in the Wall. It is not a pub I would chose to drink; more of an eating place. But it once had the most famous landlord in the English-speaking world: Long John Silver. OK, OK, it is one of those poetic license things. It is said to have been the inspiration for R.L.Stevenson in creating the Splyglass Inn in Treasure Island which was supposed to have a small window overlooking the wharf so Silver could give a warning to the drinking seamen and pirates that the press gang was coming along the quayside.
Going around the pub we come into the large open space of Queen Square, most famous for the 1831 Bristol Riots. The House of Lords had rejected the Reform Bill intended to bring democracy to the old rotten boroughs (of 104,000 Bristol citizens only 6,000 had the vote). When a local magistrate, a firm opponent of reform, came to open the new Assize Courts an angry mob chased him into Queen Square. He escaped but the Mayor and officials were besieged in the Mansion House (the current Bristol Mayor enjoys about the same level hostility). The riot continued for three days before it was put down by a bloody charge by cavalry with drawn swords.
A short road leads from the Square to one of Bristol’s most famous streets; the cobblestoned King Street. Toward the harbour end is a crossroads on one corner of which is The Old Duke which has been Bristol’s most famous jazz pub since I was an underaged drinker, half a century ago. For about the same time the pub sign has shown the Duke in the pub’s name as Duke Ellington.
Great pub though this is I’ll skip it in favour a grand pub on the opposite of the cobbles – the absolutely splendid Llandoger Trow. Originally a five gabled tavern, it is now down to three after some architectural redesign by the Luftwaffe. Look at it. Isn’t that a grand place to go for a
drink. Even if you didn’t know its history.
Llandogo is a village on the Wye across the Bristol Channel that sent cargo barges to Bristol where they docked on the Welsh Back – the wharf on which the Llandoger stood (in its 5 gable form). The pub has a R.L. Stevenson connection although, in my view, this one is less certain. It is supposed the model for Jim Hawkins’ boyhood home – the Admiral Benbow. (A sign in the pub says it was the model for The Spyglass. Tat is patent nonsense. Just ignore it). With a degree more certainty we can say it was the pub where Daniel Defoe met Alexander Selkirk and talked of Selkirk’s experiences as a marooned sailor. This was, of course, the inspiration for Robinson Crusoe.
Generations of corporate pub owners have done their very best to rip apart and destroy this grand old pub but, somehow, it has survived all this and continues to be fine tavern.
Next we can take a quick walk over Bristol Bridge and turn along in the direction of St Mary Redcliffe. The Seven Stars isn’t much of a pub, nothing very special ... apart from its history. When Thomas Clarkson, one of the founders of the association for the abolition of slavery, came to Bristol to investigate the trade it was to William Thompson, landlord of the Seven Stars, to whom he turned. The Stars was a rooming house for sailors and Thompson found them new berths to ship out. But never on slavers; the seamen hated slaving ships and had to coerced into voyaging on them. Thompson disguised Clarkson and arranged for him to meet ex-slaver seamen to gather information to build their case against slave trading. It was thus vital in the rise of the Abolitionist movement. As the pub sign says “Cry Freedom. Cry Seven Stars”. Worth having a pint just to sit and reflect on that history.
Retracing our steps we cross Bristol Bridge again in medieval times, once across the bridge, we would be arriving at one of Bristol’s four gates in the city walls, with the spire of Christ Church at the top of the hill marking the centre of the old city and county of Bristol.
Nearby is the old Corn Exchange and standing outside are ... well, you may well have heard the expression “To pay on the nail” meaning to settle up straight away ... standing outside the Corn Exchange are the “nails” to which the phrase refers. You can imagine banging down your pile of golden guineas on these.
Going back to the church and down Broad Street we can see the sole remaining gate – surviving because it is built into St John the Baptist church.
Turning left we come back to The Centre (at the far end from where we started) and my favourite pub on it: The White Lion which proudly boast to be smallest.
It isn’t particularly historic; unless you count the fact that it is a lean-to with its back wall not actually part of the pub building but a fragment of the old city wall. It has one room, the bar, on ground floor with the “Gents” and cellar directly below in the basement, and the “Ladies” and other rooms above on the first floor. To get to the Gents you have to down a tight, spiral, iron staircase salvaged from the old Bristol Prison. Fifty years ago this staircase was boxed in so that the new visitor came across the spiral unexpectedly and, if they were inattentive or a little tipsy, might find themselves unexpectedly and suddenly 15 foot below where they thought they would be – to the great amusement of the regulars. Even today those who are ... err ... “large boned” need to take care not to get stuck. In fine weather you can sit outside and watch the constant flow of the inner city, admire the art deco simplicity of 33 Colston and pretend you don’t notice the traffic fumes.
And that’s the end of the stroll. It takes rather less than an hour and half, plus drinking time. Perhaps you’ll do it sometime.
