Broad Street
One of the four streets Bristol grew from, from the Saxon crossroads to the film sets of today.
Broad Street runs downhill from Christ Church, where the four first streets of Bristol met, to St John’s Gate in the medieval town wall. It has been a street of merchants’ stalls, inns, banks, lawyers’ offices and courts, and is now one of the best-preserved streets in the Old City.
Listed buildings are shaded; select one to read about it. Footprints from the listed building outlines published by planning.data.gov.uk under the Open Government Licence.
- Saxon times to 1500One of Bristol’s four first streets
Broad Street, High Street, Wine Street and Corn Street met at a cross in the middle of the Saxon town of Brycgstow. Everything else grew from there.
- Medieval to todaySt John’s Gate and the town wall
At the bottom of Broad Street stands the last surviving gate of medieval Bristol, with a church built over it.
- 1295 to todayThe inns of Broad Street
Oxenford’s Inn, the White Lion, the White Hart, the Saracen’s Head, the Ragged Staff, the Cyder House and the Brandy Cask: for seven hundred years this was a street to stay and drink in.
- 13th century to todayThe Guildhall and the 1788 meeting
Bristol’s Guildhall has stood on Broad Street since the Middle Ages. In 1788 it hosted the city’s first public meeting against the slave trade.
- 1750 to todayBanks and business
Bristol’s first banking partnership opened in Broad Street in 1750. A century later the Bank of England followed.
- 1844 to 1901Victorian Broad Street
In a few years in the 1860s Broad Street gained a grand hotel and a Gothic bar, and in 1901 one of the most extraordinary shop fronts in Britain.
- 1940 to 1977Blitz, towers and listing
War damage, a twelve-storey office block on the line of the town wall, and the listing that protected the rest of the street.
- 2022 to 2024Taking back the street
After centuries of carts, carriages and cars, Broad Street became a street for people on foot.
- 2010 to todayBroad Street on screen
Victorian London, Sherlock Holmes’s student days and the Doctor’s sixtieth anniversary: Broad Street has played them all.
Number by number
Every building and landmark on the street with an entry so far. If you know the story of a building that is missing, please tell us.
North-east side, from Christ Church down to the gate
- 63No. 63
A listed building near the top of the north-east side.
- 59 and 61Nos. 59 and 61
Listed buildings between Christ Church and the Grand Hotel.
- 53 to 55The Grand Hotel
Successor to the White Lion, one of Bristol’s most famous inns since at least 1517.
- 52No. 52
Next door to No. 51, across Cider House Passage. A medieval chapel property.
- 51No. 51
Archibald Ponton’s polychrome Venetian Gothic front of 1867 to 1868, on a plot with records back to 1295.
- 49 and 50Nos. 49 and 50
An eighteenth-century building with a Victorian ground floor, now a pub.
- 44No. 44
Listed at Grade II in 1977.
- 43No. 43
A listed building on the north-east side.
- 42No. 42
Home of the Bristol Bank, the city’s first full banking partnership, from 1750.
- 41No. 41
Known as Taylors Bank.
- 37 and 38Everard’s Printing Works
W. J. Neatby’s tiled front of 1900 to 1901, the largest of its kind in Britain.
- 36No. 36
The Guildhall Tavern.
- 35No. 35
A listed building with railings, near the gate.
South-west side, from Corn Street down to the gate
- 1No. 1
The corner building at the top of the south-west side.
- 5 to 8Nos. 5 to 8, Broad Street House
Listed buildings known together as Broad Street House.
- 9 to 11Nos. 9 to 11
Listed buildings beside the former Bank of England.
- 12 to 14The former Bank of England
C. R. Cockerell’s Greek Doric branch of the Bank of England, 1844 to 1847. Grade I.
- The Guildhall
A guildhall since the Middle Ages, rebuilt by R. S. Pope in 1846.
- 22 to 26Nos. 22 to 26
A listed group on the south-west side.
- 28No. 28
Listed in 1977, with Conor Harrington’s mural The Duel of Bristol on its wall.
- 29 to 31St Lawrence House
A twelve-storey tower of 1967 on the line of the medieval wall.
Churches, lanes and landmarks
- Christ Church with St Ewen
The church at the top of Broad Street, where Bristol’s four first streets meet.
- Cider House Passage
The narrow lane beside No. 51, once Bear Lane, named after the Cyder House that stood in it.
- Tailors Court
A lane off Broad Street with the Merchant Tailors’ Guild Hall of 1740.
- St John on the Wall and St John’s Gate
The last surviving gate of medieval Bristol, with a church above it.