Old Map of Bristol

Historical Background

This Bristol plan belongs to the group of port and harbour maps prepared by J. Bartholomew for A. Fullarton & Co.’s Royal Illustrated Atlas. Bristol appears as a separate numbered plan on the atlas’s South-West Coast sheet. The reproduced section concentrates on the city itself, bringing its streets, waterways and public buildings into a single compact view.

Map Details

• Original title: Bristol
• Mapmaker: J. Bartholomew, F.R.G.S.
• Publisher: A. Fullarton & Co., London, Edinburgh and Dublin
• Source publication: The Royal Illustrated Atlas — Ports & Harbours on the South-West Coast of England
• Date: Nineteenth century; the atlas appeared in parts in 1854–62 and as a volume in 1864, with later editions
• Area shown: Bristol city centre, Clifton and neighbouring districts
• Map type: Detailed town plan with a numbered building key

The harbour shapes the city

The Floating Harbour is central to the composition. Its winding course sits within the tightly drawn street pattern, while the New Cut creates a separate channel to the south. This arrangement records Bristol’s distinctive relationship with the Avon: the city’s working waterfront was woven into its urban centre, rather than set apart on an open coast. The contrast between water and the coloured built-up areas makes the harbour easy to follow across the plan.

Clifton and the railway approaches

Clifton lies west of the crowded centre, with the Avon gorge and the crossing marked as the Suspension Bridge nearby. Railway infrastructure introduces another layer of nineteenth-century Bristol. Around Temple Meads, tracks and approaches connect the town plan with the wider transport network. Across the river, Bedminster and the surrounding streets show how development extended beyond the historic core. The map brings these different parts of Bristol together without reducing them to a modern schematic outline.

Buildings worth looking for

A numbered reference key identifies institutions and public buildings, including the Guildhall, Exchange, Custom House, Theatre and Post Office. These entries give the plan more than geographical interest: they help reconstruct the civic and commercial life organised around the harbour. Bristol’s trading wealth also has a difficult history, including its earlier role in the transatlantic slave trade. A Victorian map records the later city shaped by that legacy, as well as by industrial growth and changing transport. The small street labels and careful engraving make this a particularly absorbing print for someone who knows Bristol well.