Stokes Croft History Walk – Location 4: The Love Inn

Jamaica Street Studios

Jamaica Street Studios was built for Perry’s Carriage Works in the 1890s, completed in 1905 and with 2 extra floors added in 1909. The building was primarily used as a paint shop for the carriages.

‘…historically a building of much interest, maintaining the intermittent thread from the structural experiments of the 1840s to the hegemony of the steel or concrete frame a century later’
Gomme A, Jenner M and Little B: Bristol, An Architectural History

Bristol Division Royal Naval Volunteer Reserves moved to 37 Jamaica Street in 1909, moving to HMS Flying Fox in 1924.

During the Edwardian era, the reserves would have been frequently seen walking and parading around Stokes Croft.

The building passed hands to various businesses in the 20th century, becoming the offices for Venue Magazine in the 80s and 90s, before becoming Jamaica Street artist studios in the 2000s.

Drawing by Samuel Loxton dated 1909, when the building was used by the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserves

Royal Navy Volunteer Reserves outside the Carriageworks 1914

Postcard showing the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserves outside the Carriageworks building 1909

The- Day the Nun Died, Jamaica Street, Bristol, 1985. Robert 3D Del Naja painting the side wall of the building that housed Venue magazine.

There is an odd story that before the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserves occupied Jamaica Street, they were stationed on HMS Daedulus, which had reported seeing a sea serpent, which I’m sure the sailors in the Bell would have been endlessly recalling… The story was printed in 150 newspapers, an early viral story, until the pushback when the papers made fun of the captain’s credulity. https://theseaofbooks.com/2023/02/13/the-captain-the-sea-serpent-and-the-illustrious-news/
https://skepticalinquirer.org/2015/09/the-1848-enormous-serpent-of-the-daedalus-identified/

Illustration of the Great Sea Serpent seen by HMS Daedalus

Illustration of the Great Sea Serpent seen by HMS Daedalus – The Literary Gazette 1848

The Great Sea Serpent of 1848 – Satitical Cartoon in Punch Magazine by Granger

Satirical poem about the sighting of the Serpent in the Literary Gazette 1848

The Bell pub – 1900s

Turbo Island

Turbo Island was once the site of three buildings – a shoe shop at 71 to 73 Stokes Croft—that received a direct hit from a 400 lb bomb during a Second World War air raid.

After the bombing, the council decided that a new building in that location would obstruct drivers’ views of other vehicles as they approached the Jamaica Street-Stokes Croft junction. So the stretch of land became what is known in town planning circles as a “sloap” – space left over after planning.

The foundations of the buildings remain and form a wall upon which homeless people have been known to sit, chat, and drink for several decades.

Turbo Island, or Cider Island, has always been a strange place. When I was a school kid in the 70s I can remember there was always 3 old-school tramps sat on the wall drinking, and it felt like there would have been 3 old guys sat drinking there since the middle ages. During the 2000s, it became a meeting place for the homeless and street drinkers, and now it hosts multiple overlapping unofficial parties around a bonfire, shared by the homeless and ravers, which is an example of the strange demographic of Stokes Croft.

A host of stories were attached to the traffic island, such as it was once a “Speaker’s Corner”; and that it was “where pirates were hanged”.

Broken window – shoe shop on Turbo Island 1935

TURBO ISLAND (Bombed during WWII). Painting by local artist

Looking towards the Canteen from Turbo Island – 1967

Turbo Island in the 2000s, before it became a meeting place

Archaeological dig by PRSC on Turbo Island 2009

The ever shifting demographic of Bristol’s Bermuda Triangle

A fantastic gallery of modern images of Turbo Island can be seen here: https://simonholliday.com/photography/collection/turbo-island

Some information about the archaeological dig in 2009: https://www.thepavement.org.uk/stories/2196

An assessment of the excavation of an apparently ordinary space in Bristol, by Gillian Crea, Andrew Dafnis, Jane Hallam, Rachael Kiddy and John Scofield:
Turbo Island, Bristol: excavating a contemporary homeless place (PDF)

Baptist College, Bank and Chapel

The site of Hamilton House, built in 1972 was a Baptist college, founded in 1679, then moved to Stokes Croft in 1812.
The Love Inn was the Allied Irish Bank until 1972.
Tucked away between two shops is Stokes Croft Chapel built by the Christian Brethren in 1907.

Drawing of Stokes Croft Baptist College 1890s

Baptist College – Illustration by Loxton 1900s

YMCA building next to the Baptist College – Illustration by Loxton 1900s

The Baptist college – view from 1892 compared with today, showing Hamilton House

Map showing the location of the large Baptist College stretching to City Rd, and the Chapel further down the road

Christ Scientist building on the site of the Baptist College

Christ Scientist building on the site of the Baptist College – City Rd entrance

Blundell’s Department Store

On the corner of Thomas Street and Stokes Croft, stood the large Blundell’s Department Store. This was a fine example of 1930s Art Deco.

The Globe Hotel

The Globe hotel was one of many small hotels on Stokes Croft, before the Blitz changed the nature of the streets in the 1940s. The Globe was completely destroyed. The owners, the Pullen family escaped the bombing through the beer delivery chute.