Victoria Street
Distance: 3.5 km.
In 1240 the River was diverted through Canon’s Marsh to join the Avon, close to the present Bathurst Basin, in order to provide a harbour close to the town centre. These works were carried out, under the command of Henry III, by men from the Redcliff and Temple parishes. At the time, these parishes were separated from Bristol by the Avon. The effect of incorporating these two parishes into the town was to double the size of Bristol.
Victoria Street started life in the 19th century and you will see evidence of this in the converted warehousing and rows of Bristol ‘Byzantine‘ shops. These are on the left opposite the first fifteen-storey office block built in 1964. To the right and just before you turn into St. Thomas Street, there are four fine examples of 17th-century houses, now shops and a café bar.
St.Thomas Street and the Church of St. Thomas the Martyr were built in the thirteenth century and redesigned in the eighteenth. The church is home to an altarpiece from 1716. This was a typical adornment for many parish churches; the most famous of these is Hogarth’s Tryptic, which is hosted at St. Nicholas Church on the city side of the Bristol Bridge.
