1936 Bristol city centre

c1936 The Ever Changing Face of Bristol's Centre

1936 work began on cutting new roads across the City Centre. Originally the Frome joined the Avon downstream of Bristol Bridge, and formed part of the city defences, but in the thirteenth century the river was diverted through marshland belonging to St Augustine's Abbey (now Bristol Cathedral), as part of major port improvement works. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the lower reaches of the river were culverted and the river now flows under The Centre into St Augustine's Reach.