Futures Past - St Luke’s Gazette - Edition 4
- GVHeritage Groups
- Dec 13, 2024
- 2 min read
by the St Luke's Heritage Group for Futures Past
✨ Step Into the Past: What Awaits You in This Edition of the St Luke’s Gazette…
This edition of the St Luke’s Gazette is packed with discoveries, local legends, and vivid glimpses into the lives of the people who built St Luke’s as we know it today. Our Futures Past Heritage Project has unearthed remarkable stories from St Luke’s Road and Crescent — tales of bustling pubs, bustling families, steep steps and steeper struggles, and the colourful characters who once called our streets home.
We begin with an invitation: join us as we dream up ways to bring these stories back to life through a brand-new St Luke’s Heritage Trail. Whether you’re full of practical ideas or delightfully wild ones, this edition shows just how many treasures are waiting to be shared.
You’ll meet the hardworking women of St Luke’s — juggling labour-intensive housework, low-paid factory shifts, and thriving families that often reached double digits. Their resilience shines through the decades, and a new research group is now piecing together their long-overlooked stories.
Turn the page and you’ll encounter the influential Methuen family, whose land once stretched across Pile Hill, and learn how the grand world of Corsham Court unexpectedly shaped our corner of Totterdown. From there, we dip into the stark divide created by the railway tracks: vibrant Totterdown on one side, and on the other, East Bedminster battling desperate poverty in the industrial depression — a contrast that defined daily life for early residents.
This edition also celebrates the landmarks that have become part of our neighbourhood’s identity. The vanished lido, the eight much-loved pubs, the long flights of St Luke’s Steps climbed by generations, and the skittle alleys where local rivalry reached legendary status — they’re all here, brought together through research, recollection and imagination.
And because St Luke’s has always been a place of creativity, you’ll also find a playful call for volunteers to help craft “chicken-wire ghosts” — life-sized figures inspired by historical characters to feature along our future trail. A quirky, charming way to let the past walk with us once more.
With community meetings at the Star & Dove, new stories still emerging, and plans forming for a heritage trail launch alongside the Front Room Arts Trail, this is an edition full of momentum, curiosity, and neighbourly spirit.
If you love Totterdown, history, or simply a good story, this Gazette is bursting with reasons to jump in.