Harbourside / The History of Harbourside

The History of Harbourside

The development of Bristol as a lively port, with its complex network of waterways spans 1,000 years. While Bristol's role as a port has declined, development of Bristol's harbourside is ongoing with the current redevelopment of residential, commercial and leisure spaces due to be completed in 2012. The City Docks are made up of two sections of canalised river: the Floating Harbour, which is independent of tides allowing ships to remain afloat, and a tidal stretch of water known as the New Cut. Not surprisingly, the creation of the Docks as they appear today is intertwined with the history and development of Bristol itself.

The early settlement grew on trade with Ireland in hides, timber, cloth and fish. A massive civil engineering project completed in 1247 created a much larger quay, and for the next 500 years Bristol flourished, its ships reaching Europe and beyond, carrying wine, cloth, timber, woad, iron, wax, salt, sugar and fruit.

In the eighteenth century, Bristol, on the west coast, was well placed to trade with the West Indian and American colonies and what has become known as the 'slave trade' secured the city's continued prosperity.

But Bristol's port had the second highest tidal range in the world, impeding future growth. William Jessop's plan to create a 'Floating Harbour', completed in 1809, involved 80 acres of the River Avon being impounded using locks and the tidal river diverted in a man-made trench.

Despite the improvements, poor management and high harbour dues continued to plague the port. So in 1848, the Corporation of Bristol took control of the Docks and appointed I.K. Brunel to improve the locks and dredging system. By the 1870s the docks were well equipped, and included a 35-ton Fairbairn steam crane, which still looks out over the docks today.

But the narrow approach to the port up the River Avon continued to discourage its use by bigger vessels. Indeed, Brunel's ss Great Britain, built in Bristol's harbour heralded a new era of big ships and the beginning of the end for the City Docks. The Corporation acquired Avonmouth and Portishead Docks in the 1880s as they were more convenient for large cargo ships and they continue to thrive as commercial ports today. City Docks continued to trade primarily in grain and mixed cargoes, but suffered a long and gradual decline until finally closing to commercial traffic in 1974.

Over the next thirty years, the Docks have gradually been transformed into an area for commercial, residential and leisure activities, giving Bristol one of the finest and most attractive resources of its kind in the world.