The Making of Victorian Bristol by Peter Malpass

Author:Peter Malpass [Malpass, Peter]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, Europe, Great Britain, General, Modern, 19th Century
ISBN: 9781783273911
Google: aeawvAEACAAJ
Publisher: Boydell Press
Published: 2019-01-15T22:32:59+00:00

The great advantage of Temple Meads was that it was owned by a willing seller, the Corporation of Bristol. In the early 1830s the corporation was disposing of land and property as a way of tackling its budget deficits, and the people Brunel talked to would have been not only aware of this but also actively involved.24 At the end of 1835 the corporation bequeathed debts of over £110,000 to the new town council, which continued the policy of asset sales as it attempted to put its finances in order.25 The council owned a total of thirty acres at Temple Meads, of which 18 acres 3 roods were sold to the GWR for £12,000 in December 1836.26 This gave the railway company only minimal access to the main road, Bath Parade. Hare’s floorcloth works, on land leased from the Society of Merchant Venturers, occupied a valuable frontage on Bath Parade and although it was not initially slated for acquisition it was purchased by agreement in 1839.27 In due course the strip to the west, between the rope walk and Pipe Lane, was also acquired. One of the leaseholders, a William Ilsley, proved difficult to dislodge and was still occupying his cooper’s shop at the entrance to Temple Meads in January 1839.28 All this gave the GWR more than twenty acres, which must have then seemed to provide, as Brunel said, ample space for future development.

Having purchased the land at Temple Meads, Brunel and the directors of the GWR had to decide how to develop it. This was perhaps made more complicated by the need to accommodate a second and separate railway company, the Bristol and Exeter, which had obtained an Act in 1836 specifying a junction with the GWR lines at Temple Meads. The fact that Brunel was also the engineer for the B&E seems not to have helped to produce a satisfactory solution. The Temple Meads complex consisted of three main elements: the first to be built was the GWR passenger terminus, opened in 1841 (but not fully completed until April 184229), followed by the goods depot in 1841–42 and then the terminus of the Bristol and Exeter, 1845. By the early part of 1839 the viaduct to carry the track into Temple Meads was being constructed, and this was the time when Brunel settled the design of Temple Meads depot as a whole.30 The GWR terminus consisted of three parts: first came the train shed, a single-span structure 115ft in width and much praised by architectural and railway historians for the elegance of its false hammer-beam roof. It contained five broad gauge tracks but only two platforms for passengers, one for arrivals and one for departures. Next came the rather narrower engine shed, where locomotives ended their journeys and were stabled when not in use. The third element was the office building, between the end of the line and Bath Parade. Here were located the boardroom and accommodation for the superintendent and chief clerk. The Bristol committee considered

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