Futures Past - St Luke’s Gazette - Edition 3
- GVHeritage Groups
- Dec 9, 2024
- 3 min read
by the St Luke's Heritage Group for Futures Past
✨ Step Inside Edition 3 of the St Luke’s Gazette… A Celebration of Pubs, People, and the Birth of a Street Museum
Edition 3 of the St Luke’s Gazette is a richly nostalgic journey through the lost pubs, lively characters and imaginative ideas that are shaping the Futures Past Street Museum of St Luke’s. With research now flowing in from residents, schools and local groups, this edition opens with an exciting shift of focus: how to bring St Luke’s history to life on the streets themselves. Page 1 invites readers into the creative process, from performances and projections to text plaques, installations, newspaper displays, artwork and collaborations with schools and community partners. It’s a warm call to dream boldly — to imagine how our streets might once again brim with stories and characters from the past.
Alongside these forward-looking plans sits a look back at where the St Luke’s name itself came from — the church and school built in the 1860s thanks to the tireless campaigning of curate Dr Doudney, who also established a ragged school and soup kitchen for the poor of East Bedminster. The illustration of St Luke’s in 1865 on page 1 beautifully anchors this historical foundation.
But the heart of this edition lies in its lovingly pieced-together history of the pubs of St Luke’s — a sprawling, spirited chronicle of community life across generations. Starting on page 2, the Gazette takes readers on a tour of the eight pubs that once lined the road from York Road to Oxford Street. The story begins with the Cumberland Hotel (now the Star & Dove), tracing its evolution from two modest houses (nos. 77 and 78) into a grander 1930s pub extension designed by William Bruce Gingle — a celebrated figure of Bristol Byzantine architecture. Photos of the Caddick family, who once lived at no. 76 before making way for the expansion, add touching human detail to this history.
Page 2 also features images ranging from Victorian street scenes to curious snapshots of what may have been a “harvest blessing of the hops and barley,” complete with unusual hats and medals. Then, in vivid colour, we see family photos and portraits — moments from St Luke’s long-gone past now brought back to life.
Edition 3 continues its pub tour on page 3 with St Luke’s sister pubs: The 3 Elms and The Boar’s Head (now Piglets), one of the three local pubs that once boasted skittle alleys. Richly atmospheric interior photos of The 3 Elms’ lounge evoke a bygone era of polished counters, patterned carpets and community chatter. From there, we move to the Bridge Hotel, ruled for over half a century by colourful landlord Teddy Woodlands (1905–1960). Images show how the bridge itself was rebuilt in 1930 — raised, flattened, reshaped — pushing it closer to the pub until the rumble of passing trains “rattled the glasses,” as the Gazette wonderfully puts it.
The final page of the edition brings us even deeper into St Luke’s pub culture, showing The Exeter, The Victoria, The Princess Royal, The Harford Arms and others — a full gallery of lost favourites that once gave the neighbourhood its distinctive social rhythm (page 4). There’s even a display of vintage beer tokens for Totterdown pubs — tangible relics of an era when a penny token could buy you a drink at the Harford’s “Jug, Bottle & Glass” counter.
Layered among these images are evocative overlays of then-and-now street scenes — faded figures walking the St Luke’s Steps, glimpses of long-gone shopfronts, and mysterious silhouettes hinting at what the edition calls “ghostly projections.” These visual blends offer a tantalising glimpse of what a Futures Past Street Museum might look like: a neighbourhood where the past stands beside the present, both visible at once.
The edition closes, as always, with a spirit of welcome — photos of residents and researchers meeting around tables at the Star & Dove, sharing ideas, maps and memories, and an open invitation for anyone to join the Futures Past Heritage Project’s growing community.
Edition 3 is a celebration of St Luke’s social heart — its pubs, its people and its stories — and an inspiring glimpse of how these memories might soon return to the streets in vibrant, imaginative ways.
