Help us research
The open questions, and where the answers are likely to be.
Open questions
- Which insurer took No. 51, and when? The roundels read Fire, Accident, Marine, Life. Photographers call it the former Avon Insurance building. The trade directories of the 1920s and 1930s should tell us.
- What did the carvings of 1867 show? The press described coloured carvings symbolising the building’s purpose as a bar. Are any photographs of the front from before the insurance years known?
- What lies under No. 51? Cellars are recorded in 1634 and 1799. Has anyone recorded them?
- Café Restaurant d’Italie. Who ran it, and for how long?
- me:me and Wild At Heart. When did each open and close, and is there a photograph of either?
- The carved animal on the dormer. In 1867 a sculpted animal held the weather vane. Does it survive?
Where to look
- Bristol Archives, for trade directories, Bartholomew Lands leases, licensing records and photographs.
- Know Your Place West of England, for historic maps you can compare with today’s.
- Bristol Record Society volumes, free on the Internet Archive.
- Historic England Archive, for photographs of listed buildings.
- The British Newspaper Archive, for the Bristol papers of the 1860s and later.
- Bristol’s planning register, for the building’s applications since 1948.
Found something? Send it to us.