We finished our 2020-21 season with an excellent illustrated talk by local historian and author Eugene Byrne. As a journalist Eugene has been able to observe at close hand the many schemes put forward by developers in Bristol over the last few decades. As an historian he can offer a longer term perspective of the many structures planned but not built over the last 250 years. He began of course with William Bridges’ 1793 design for a bridge over the Avon Gorge. It would have been breath taking. Eat your heart out Bath with your Pulteney Bridge!

Many of Bristol’s schemes have a habit of coming back to haunt us. The Severn Barrage was first planned in1849 but has re-emerged in 1920, 1933, 1943, 1967, 1773, 1981 and 2007. Eugene looked at the various plans for Bristol Docks, new road schemes and numerous ideas for Bristol Harbourside including the 1997 Harbourside Centre, 1999 Little Venice and the ill fated 2003 plan for the Bristol Arena. Of particular interest were the post war plans for Bristol that began in the middle of the Blitz in 1941 with the visionary City Architect John Nelson Meredith. There were many rival plans but the City Council’s 1945 plan included a bid for the compulsory purchase of 771 acres of land. In the end post war austerity limited the Council to four and a half acres. Nevertheless, we still got Broadmead, Castle Park (eventually) and many new road schemes. In the 1940s Bristol planners believed cars were the solution but by the 1970s Bristol was lamenting the loss of its tram system. From 1979 there have been a succession of plans for trams and supertrams starting with the Avon Metro. Today the Mayor is once again promising an underground. Eugene looked at recent ideas for the Castle Park/High Street site and alluded to the ongoing arguments about football stadiums.

A pattern emerged. During periods of prosperity engineers, planners and developers have big ideas but along comes a recession and the schemes are kicked into the long grass. In the debate that followed Eugene’s talk the audience offered conspiracy theories and pointed out structures that should never have been built. There was some agreement that a return to an Avon/Greater Bristol authority would solve some of Bristol’s planning problems.

Eugene’s book Unbuilt Bristol’ is available in all good bookshops. It should be compulsory reading for our Mayor, developers and planners.