The Mall Gardens, a brief history.
Upper Mall Garden
The first thirteen houses on the easterly end of West Mall and Caledonia Place were built in about 1785. The first detailed map, Donne’s of 1826, shows the upper garden containing two rows of trees, eight each side. (These could resemble modern developers’ “notional trees” ie how the site could possibly look if someone else planted them). However, Ashmead’s large-scale map of 1828 shows eleven trees or shrubs of different sizes randomly planted and surrounded by a path with exits at the eastern and western ends. Ashmead’s map of 1846 shows the path around the garden but no trees while his map of 1849 shows seven trees randomly growing around the edge of the garden. Lavar’s map of 1870 also shows seven trees around the edges of the garden. The Ordnance Survey map of 1880 shows many more trees and shrubs around the edges of the garden but with three trees not on the edge. There was a cabman’s shelter outside the garden, opposite the Clifton Club; this does not appear on the 1900 OS map. Some of these maps can be seen via the "know your place" link on our useful contacts page.
Middle Garden
It was probably intended to build between the two rows of West Mall and Caledonia Place to face the Mall. However, war with Revolutionary and Napoleonic France which broke out in 1793 meant that this was abandoned. It was not until the 1830s that it was decided to extend West Mall (then called New Mall) and Caledonia Place. A writer in the Bristol Times and Mirror in 1883 remembers looking towards the Mall from Sion Hill in the 1820s at “green fields and garden ground … no carriage roadway , now the site of West Mall and Caledonia Place”, the garden ground presumably being the Upper Garden. Ashmead’s map of 1846 shows trees but no visible path. His map of 1849 depicts eight trees randomly seen around the edge of the garden whereas his 1855 map shows just three trees. Lavar’s 1859 map has nine random trees and his 1875 map an indeterminate number in line with the edges of the garden. The 1880 OS map shows trees and shrubs all around the periphery of the garden. No map shows a path.
Lower Garden
Evans map of 1828 shows open land with three trees just on the east side of Sion Lane. Ashmead’s 1849 map shows four trees, two of them appearing to be in the same position as those shown in 1828. His 1855 map shows trees on the north, west and east sides at the edges of the garden. Lavar's map shows four trees in 1870 but only three in 1875! The 1880 OS map depicts seven trees.
Personal Account
My acquaintance with the gardens dates from buying our house in West Mall in 1966. At that time there were two societies, one for the upper and one for the middle gardens. The Upper Garden had retained its railings during the war but the Middle and Lower had lost theirs and the copings were broken in many places. The gardens were for the use of the residents and maintenance was grass cutting by volunteers.
When we returned from abroad to live permanently in Clifton in 1974 the gardens had acquired Town Green status. However, Council maintenance was poor, the gardens littered and the volunteers who had cut the grass were too elderly to continue. After much searching the lawn mower for the Middle Garden was found in someone’s basement!
The following may sound immodest but it is accurate to the best of my recollection. In 1974 I began writing to the Department of the Environment and the City Council as to the possibility of restoring the railings. Both were prepared to give some funds but neither wished to repair the coping stones. Obviously, the railings could not be installed without repairs to the broken copings. Eventually common sense prevailed and the copings were repaired.
A Clifton and Hotwells and Improvement Society (CHIS) working party plus residents then cut back the brambles which covered the Lower Garden.
We were helped enormously by the arrival at that time in Caledonia Place of a newly-retired and extremely energetic senior civil servant, Toby Bernard. The two gardens’ societies agreed to amalgamate and a committee was then formed with Toby as Chairman to plan a Clifton Village Fayre to raise money towards replacing the railings and scheduled to coincide with the International Wine Fair then held in Bristol.
The first of these fayres took place in 1978. It is difficult to describe the enthusiasm with which residents and businesses participated. Roads were closed and the Village largely pedestrianised. Residents all wore Georgian or Victorian costume and lined West Mall with stalls selling food, plants, books etc. With the permission of the landlords, the Merchant Venturers, Christchurch Green was used for a huge merry-go-round and by local traders’ who erected stalls and gave a donation to the funds. Donations were also received from CHIS and the Clifton Club. In the Mall were a steam organ, classic cars and a home-made sweet stall. Other traders joined in, a restaurant in Waterloo Street cooking snails outside for example. Later fayres saw additional events such as drinking a yard of ale competition, a silver band, an ox roast on the terrace of the Avon Gorge Hotel and a dance in Goldney Hall garden. Chelsea Pensioners and French police, the latter here at the invitation of local police, rattled tins and our small children dressed as flower girls sold posies. Selling the programme in advance provided wet- weather insurance, although on only one occasion was there rain which soon cleared.
The event was enormously successful and ran until 1983, attracting crowds of 10,000 a time. The Middle Garden railings were gradually all replaced, being made and installed by Brian Lane, a West Mall resident’s engineering firm. Working parties of residents painted them and the Council pledged to undertake their maintenance.
We wished to continue the fayres in order to replace the Lower Garden railings but Council bureaucracy began to intervene. Licences were demanded for each stall holder. As an example - not knowing how many members would man the CHIS bookstall, I gave the Council a list of all 1,000 members and licences were issued for every one! Health and Safety refused to allow us to continue to sell food, cooked in our own kitchens and taken to stalls immediately outside our houses and generally put obstacles in our way. A very successful series of events therefore ceased and for years after we were asked by Bristolians when the next fayre would be. The Wyvern camera club of Swindon recorded one year’s fayre from dawn to dusk and kindly gave me a copy of their transparencies.
Post-1983
The Village fayres had done much to bind the community together but with their demise and the completion of the main objective the same spirit did not exist. Various efforts were made to re-form Gardens Associations but these were short-lived. It is immensely encouraging to see a new and vigorous Mall Gardens Residents’ Association established.
By the 1990s half of the Lower Garden copings had long disappeared and the remainder, although still existing, were in a bad way. I was anxious to ensure that the remaining lengths were secured. I wrote to a number of charities and between 1992 and 1993 managed to secure small grants from CHIS, Avon County Council, Shell Better Britain, the Association of Gardens Trust, the Roger and Sarah Bancroft Clark Charitable Trust etc. No reply was received from the Council Conservation Officer or Clifton Rotary. However, sufficient funds were raised for local builder Ted Callaghan to repair a length each year until what remained was secured.
Michael Pascoe
16 June 2011
Upper Mall Garden
The first thirteen houses on the easterly end of West Mall and Caledonia Place were built in about 1785. The first detailed map, Donne’s of 1826, shows the upper garden containing two rows of trees, eight each side. (These could resemble modern developers’ “notional trees” ie how the site could possibly look if someone else planted them). However, Ashmead’s large-scale map of 1828 shows eleven trees or shrubs of different sizes randomly planted and surrounded by a path with exits at the eastern and western ends. Ashmead’s map of 1846 shows the path around the garden but no trees while his map of 1849 shows seven trees randomly growing around the edge of the garden. Lavar’s map of 1870 also shows seven trees around the edges of the garden. The Ordnance Survey map of 1880 shows many more trees and shrubs around the edges of the garden but with three trees not on the edge. There was a cabman’s shelter outside the garden, opposite the Clifton Club; this does not appear on the 1900 OS map. Some of these maps can be seen via the "know your place" link on our useful contacts page.
Middle Garden
It was probably intended to build between the two rows of West Mall and Caledonia Place to face the Mall. However, war with Revolutionary and Napoleonic France which broke out in 1793 meant that this was abandoned. It was not until the 1830s that it was decided to extend West Mall (then called New Mall) and Caledonia Place. A writer in the Bristol Times and Mirror in 1883 remembers looking towards the Mall from Sion Hill in the 1820s at “green fields and garden ground … no carriage roadway , now the site of West Mall and Caledonia Place”, the garden ground presumably being the Upper Garden. Ashmead’s map of 1846 shows trees but no visible path. His map of 1849 depicts eight trees randomly seen around the edge of the garden whereas his 1855 map shows just three trees. Lavar’s 1859 map has nine random trees and his 1875 map an indeterminate number in line with the edges of the garden. The 1880 OS map shows trees and shrubs all around the periphery of the garden. No map shows a path.
Lower Garden
Evans map of 1828 shows open land with three trees just on the east side of Sion Lane. Ashmead’s 1849 map shows four trees, two of them appearing to be in the same position as those shown in 1828. His 1855 map shows trees on the north, west and east sides at the edges of the garden. Lavar's map shows four trees in 1870 but only three in 1875! The 1880 OS map depicts seven trees.
Personal Account
My acquaintance with the gardens dates from buying our house in West Mall in 1966. At that time there were two societies, one for the upper and one for the middle gardens. The Upper Garden had retained its railings during the war but the Middle and Lower had lost theirs and the copings were broken in many places. The gardens were for the use of the residents and maintenance was grass cutting by volunteers.
When we returned from abroad to live permanently in Clifton in 1974 the gardens had acquired Town Green status. However, Council maintenance was poor, the gardens littered and the volunteers who had cut the grass were too elderly to continue. After much searching the lawn mower for the Middle Garden was found in someone’s basement!
The following may sound immodest but it is accurate to the best of my recollection. In 1974 I began writing to the Department of the Environment and the City Council as to the possibility of restoring the railings. Both were prepared to give some funds but neither wished to repair the coping stones. Obviously, the railings could not be installed without repairs to the broken copings. Eventually common sense prevailed and the copings were repaired.
A Clifton and Hotwells and Improvement Society (CHIS) working party plus residents then cut back the brambles which covered the Lower Garden.
We were helped enormously by the arrival at that time in Caledonia Place of a newly-retired and extremely energetic senior civil servant, Toby Bernard. The two gardens’ societies agreed to amalgamate and a committee was then formed with Toby as Chairman to plan a Clifton Village Fayre to raise money towards replacing the railings and scheduled to coincide with the International Wine Fair then held in Bristol.
The first of these fayres took place in 1978. It is difficult to describe the enthusiasm with which residents and businesses participated. Roads were closed and the Village largely pedestrianised. Residents all wore Georgian or Victorian costume and lined West Mall with stalls selling food, plants, books etc. With the permission of the landlords, the Merchant Venturers, Christchurch Green was used for a huge merry-go-round and by local traders’ who erected stalls and gave a donation to the funds. Donations were also received from CHIS and the Clifton Club. In the Mall were a steam organ, classic cars and a home-made sweet stall. Other traders joined in, a restaurant in Waterloo Street cooking snails outside for example. Later fayres saw additional events such as drinking a yard of ale competition, a silver band, an ox roast on the terrace of the Avon Gorge Hotel and a dance in Goldney Hall garden. Chelsea Pensioners and French police, the latter here at the invitation of local police, rattled tins and our small children dressed as flower girls sold posies. Selling the programme in advance provided wet- weather insurance, although on only one occasion was there rain which soon cleared.
The event was enormously successful and ran until 1983, attracting crowds of 10,000 a time. The Middle Garden railings were gradually all replaced, being made and installed by Brian Lane, a West Mall resident’s engineering firm. Working parties of residents painted them and the Council pledged to undertake their maintenance.
We wished to continue the fayres in order to replace the Lower Garden railings but Council bureaucracy began to intervene. Licences were demanded for each stall holder. As an example - not knowing how many members would man the CHIS bookstall, I gave the Council a list of all 1,000 members and licences were issued for every one! Health and Safety refused to allow us to continue to sell food, cooked in our own kitchens and taken to stalls immediately outside our houses and generally put obstacles in our way. A very successful series of events therefore ceased and for years after we were asked by Bristolians when the next fayre would be. The Wyvern camera club of Swindon recorded one year’s fayre from dawn to dusk and kindly gave me a copy of their transparencies.
Post-1983
The Village fayres had done much to bind the community together but with their demise and the completion of the main objective the same spirit did not exist. Various efforts were made to re-form Gardens Associations but these were short-lived. It is immensely encouraging to see a new and vigorous Mall Gardens Residents’ Association established.
By the 1990s half of the Lower Garden copings had long disappeared and the remainder, although still existing, were in a bad way. I was anxious to ensure that the remaining lengths were secured. I wrote to a number of charities and between 1992 and 1993 managed to secure small grants from CHIS, Avon County Council, Shell Better Britain, the Association of Gardens Trust, the Roger and Sarah Bancroft Clark Charitable Trust etc. No reply was received from the Council Conservation Officer or Clifton Rotary. However, sufficient funds were raised for local builder Ted Callaghan to repair a length each year until what remained was secured.
Michael Pascoe
16 June 2011