Walking from Temple Meads, that magnificent palace of a railway station built by Isambard Kingdom Brunel I saw this beautiful building. Isn’t it graceful, isn’t it well proportioned? I have no idea what it was in a former life but I guess the large gated entrance on the right was the way horse-drawn vehicles entered, probably into a courtyard at the back. It’s near the river so maybe it had something to do with trade and commerce… Bristol has a stain of shame upon its history because it was very much involved in the vile trade in human trafficking, where African people were captured and sold as a commodity in exchange for woollen cloth, brass, iron and other metal goods. These poor souls, millions of them, were sent across the Atlantic, and the money raised by ‘selling’ them bought goods to be shipped back to England, to such cities as Bristol. The very ships which had transported the Africans were used to bring tobacco sugar and rum back to Bristol… merchants became wealthy through this revolting business
WRITER
Lois Elsden 