An introduction to the St Luke's Heritage Group - ‘If these walls could talk!’

by the St Luke's Heritage Group for Futures Past

The latest venture from the Museum of Totterdown sees them take a deep dive into the history of St Luke’s Road and Crescent.

After being asked to describe history, Arnold Toynbee once declared – ‘it’s just one damned thing after another’. He was speaking of all history, but sometimes there are places where this statement seems to be particularly applicable.

The Museum of Totterdown grew out of ‘The Road’ community heritage project in 2017 – a series of public events which looked back at the 1960s and 70s demolition of middle Totterdown. During the past 7 years, we have been building a broader understanding of the history of this amazing neighbourhood. It has been quite an undertaking and the more we have uncovered, the more we feel that we are only just beginning to scratch the surface.

So, rather than try to take on the whole cake, so to speak, our approach has been to focus in on ‘thin slices’ on a ‘one street at a time’ basis. In this way, we gain a sense of the bigger picture in microcosm by looking at the lives of all those who once inhabited a single street, and by drilling down on their stories, ‘house by house’.

So, in 2024, for the first time, we are taking on two thoroughfares - St Luke’s Road and its sister street, St Luke’s Crescent. This will be our most ambitious survey so far and throughout the year we will be taking a deep dive into the history of 167 houses, 40 shops, 8 pubs, a chapel and a primary school. We will be working with Gathering Voices on a project funded by the National Lottery.

As we pursue our explorations, ancient ghosts are beginning to appear, leaving their tantalizing vapour trails. We can only imagine the hardships they had to endure, the strength of bonds between their friends and families, their stoicism in the face of injustices, their joys and their sorrows. Each and every one has a human story to tell, if we could only just winkle it out.

Thus far, our explorations have uncovered stories to inspire, shock and amuse, as we begin to slowly uncover this invisible ‘alternate universe’ behind the bricks and beneath our feet.

St Luke’s Community Heritage, 2024

The building of St Luke’s Road in 1868 was the vanguard of a new hilltop suburb for the rapidly expanding city of Bristol. Nearby Temple Meads was attracting large numbers of workers from the local shires and new homes were at a premium. Once described as ‘salubrious’, Totterdown provided a desirable alternative to the inner city for railway workers, artisans, traders, and clothiers. The Wells Road high street wasn’t a thing yet, so St Luke’s Road and Oxford Street were the main shopping precincts with over 60 shops and 11 pubs established at the outset.

The proposed Outer Circuit Ring Road and 3 Lamps interchange in the 1960s and 70s spelt disaster for the residents of both streets, with the south terrace of Oxford and the east and west terraces of St Luke’s making way for a never-to-be-built shambles.

But let us not dwell on such times, there is much to explore throughout the one-and-half centuries of this close-knit neighbourhood. MoT is collaborating with local residents, schools, shops & businesses, community groups, the local history society, UWE and others to try to bring to life the history of St Luke’s.

St Luke's Road, Bristol