AC2.2 History - Bristol

33038155

AC2.2 HISTORY

To what extent was the Architecture of Bristol affected by its involvement with the Atlantic Slave Trade?

Gaven Webb

AC2.2 History - 33038155

To what extent was the Architecture of Bristol affected by its involvement with the Atlantic Slave Trade?

Bristol has a long and varied history playing host to key events throughout is existence, and has generally grown and adapted to them with enthusiasm and dedication. One of its strongest features has always been the River Avon and its tidal waters; an asset that allowed Bristol to become one of the busiest ports in the Western world. As a result it was an inevitability that it would come to play a key role in the Atlantic Slave Trade, and that the city would once again grow and adapt. Yet was the Atlantic Slave Trade solely responsible for Bristol's growth, or was this but part of a larger development and mercantile expansion following the dissolution of the Royal African Company?

Bristol had been a large and successful port from the Middle Ages onwards and had become the biggest importer of sugar, and West Indies goods in Britain, its refineries and distilleries being active from as early as 1654 (Thomas, 1998, p202).

Along with this honest form of trade the city was also infamous for kidnapping and indentured servants, many of whom came from Ireland.

Bristol officially entered the Slave Trade in 1698, following the Royal African Company's control over African Trade was broken, however it could have been trading from as early as 1670. Regardless, after 1698 the merchants of Bristol began making vast amounts of money from their triangular trade routes between Africa and America.; trading textiles and small trinkets for Slaves, who in turn were taken across the Atlantic there sold, the proceeds of which bought sugar, rum and tobacco. When this eventually came back in to port at Bristol it was sold with large profits.

This growth in wealth from the merchants began a change across the architecture of Bristol, the most notable of which was that of abandoning the traditional timber framed housing, and the adoption of brick. The first use of brick was for simple enough practice; for use as chimney and kilns from around 1673.

However the first full build is reported to have been a Tavern, on Broad Key, in c.1698 (Ricart, cited in Gomme, Jenner and Little 1979). Bristol, which up until this time had been effectively a medieval city, with narrow muddy streets which fell victim to the hoof and sled of the traders. The adoption of brick allowed for a more permanent and grandiose step forward throughout the city, providing stronger and more stable buildings for the city centre, the most notable of which where the new residential Squares, St James' Square and Queen Square.

These residential were not only built by those Merchants who had made vast profits from the trade industry, but also those "pioneers" who had managed successful plantations in the West Indies, who desired to return home, retiring to the West Country and building their grand houses. Probably the most famous of these houses is that of No 7 Great George Street where one of the founders of a West Indies trading house took up residence, father and son, John and Charles Pinney.

AC2.2 History - 33038155

To what extent was the Architecture of Bristol affected by its involvement with the Atlantic Slave Trade?

The Georgian House, as it's called, is a fine example of the late 18th Century town house; it's plain facade and unadorned windows can be seen as stark, and striking, yet it exemplifies everything about the city, and it's trade; grand, bold but perhaps the worst feature, is that it looks cold and disconnected . This style of town house was repeated across the city, to a wide range of success.

The oldest brick building that survived through to the start of the twentieth is that of Redcliffe Hill. Built around 1698, the three story town house was not the most stunning of buildings , yet "the long and short stone quoins would perhaps have seemed too rather too small in contemporary Westminster , or later on in Bristol, where in 1700 such a facade was revolutionary" (Gomme, Jenner and Little, 1979).

This building would later become important in history as the modern way of making lead shot, developed with the added brick built tower, added by William Watt in 1782.

Around this time Bristol also began to flourish the Baroque style. Kings Weston House, to the north west of Bristol is regarded as the progenitor for this style in the region. Kings Weston was designed by the renowned architect, Sir John Vanbrugh for the Secretary of State for Ireland, Sir Robert Southwell after purchasing the house and its land of one of Bristol's many merchants, Sir Humphrey Hook. Although not directly built upon the mercantile success that Bristol was enjoying it can be seen to inspire the rest of the city in to a more ostentatious attitude to their buildings.

A key example of this would be the Merchants Hall; built between 1719 to 1721 by the Society of Merchants Ventures it was a "charming and spirited" (Gomme, Jenner and Little, 1979, p.115) with elaborate wrought iron gates, Corinthian columns and in general "considerable Baroque swagger"(Gomme, Jenner and Little, 1979, p.115).

The initial developments within the residential aspects of the city soon started to spur on, and finance the redevelopment of the city's commercial and civic centres, transforming Bristol in to the second largest city in Britain, with London as ever dominating. The churches began to flourish with renovations, adopting a Corinthian woodworking, with gilded capitals along with some of the more richly carved mouldings (Dening, 1923,p.132 cited in Gomme, Jenner and Little, 1979, p.119). All the works were completed to the highest standards, my some of the most skilled craftsmen of the day, another indicative sign as the wealth and power that had emerged in Bristol at this time. This economic growth perhaps reached its zenith in the 1740's; Bristol was still Britain's second city, still enjoying the bountiful profits that slaving and it's other trades provided, giving ample opportunities to Bristol's builders who's architecture continued to flourish. One example of this would be The Exchange designed by John Wood between 1740 and 1743. It's attempt at

AC2.2 History - 33038155

To what extent was the Architecture of Bristol affected by its involvement with the Atlantic Slave Trade?

Palladianism is well respected, and only server to compliment the city with its rich facades and exquisitely carved decoration. This importance of the Exchange as an insight in to the architectural history of Britain, let alone Bristol led to yet earning a Grade One listed status, being one of the few 17th or 18th Century Exchanges to survive.

When attempting to ascertain Bristol's reliance upon the Slave Trade for its successes it is perhaps best to look at how it reacted to the proposed abolition of slavery. While the certain players within the British government, notably William Wilburforce and William Pitt the Younger, were strongly advocating for the abolition, the West Indian traders of Bristol put forward a petition stating that "it has been found ... with great exactness that the African and West Indian trade constitute at least three fifths of the commerce of the port Bristol and that if, upon such a motion, a Bill should pass in to law, the decline of the trade of... Bristol must inevitably follow" adding that this would be to "the ruin of thousands." (quoted in Thomas, 1998, p.513). It is uncertain if this "three fifths" of the commerce was purely dependent upon the Slave Trade, what is known is that Bristol's status as second city soon began to wane, being overtaken by Liverpool, and that when the in 1833 the Emancipation Act was passed, many of the plantation owners soon became bankrupt, not being able to afford the wages for the newly freed combined with the fact that many of those freed did not wish to continue working for the former masters.

Yet is it unfair to state that this development and growth was purely down to Bristol's involvement within the Atlantic Slave Trade? It is difficult to separate the city's income between that of the Slave Trade, and that of any other form of trade. It is clear that the city entered an economic boom shortly after it entered the Slave Trade; without which it is possible that the city could have continued along the same mild growth pattern, and wouldn't have had sufficient capital to have invested so much in to the residential and thus commercial architecture. It is also possible that, as a key port already, it was in prime position to take advantage of the new trade routes, combined with the technological advancements, that it would have grown and developed, much like the other ports around Britain. It remains clear however, that Bristol experienced an economic growth, the result of which was clear for all to see; a rapid and expansive redevelopment of its architecture.

AC2.2 History - 33038155

To what extent was the Architecture of Bristol affected by its involvement with the Atlantic Slave Trade?

Bibliography: Klein, H.S. 2010, The Atlantic Slave Trade, Cambridge University Press, New York Northrup, D. 2002, The Atlantic Slave Trade, Haughton Mifflin Company, Boston Thomas, H. 1997, The Slave Trade: The History of the Atlantic Slave Trade 1440 1870, Macmillan Publishers LTD, London Gomme, A., Jenner, M. and Little, B., 1979, Bristol an architectural history, Lund Humphries Publishers LTD, London Websites: http://www.flocs.com/websites/bristolslavery/beyond/liverpool.htm - Accessed 28/4/2012 http://www.flocs.com/websites/bristolslavery/beyond/endofslavery.htm - Accessed 28/4/2012 http://discoveringbristol.org.uk/slavery/routes/bristol-to-africa/bristol-trading-port/slave-tradeentry/ - Accessed 28/4/2012 http://discoveringbristol.org.uk/slavery/against-slavery/freedom-from-slavery/liberation/ - Accessed 28/4/2012 https://www.bristol.gov.uk/committee/Archived%2019982005%20folders/2000/cb/cb011/0208_23.pdf - Accessed 28/4/2012