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Things you probably didn’t know about Christmas Steps
The Christmas Steps offers a fascinating throwback to medieval Bristol as well as a vibrant arts quarter.
Here are our favourite facts about the well-worn steps that stretch between Perry Road and Colston Street have been standing in their current form since 1669:
An old photo of the Christmas Steps in the window of a former stamp shop
1) As an ancient stone plaque midway up notes, the street was “steppered done and finished” in September of that year. Previously, the thoroughfare was a steep hill leading to the River Frome, down which barrels were rolled to be loaded onto ships.
is needed now More than ever
2) The stone plaque references the street’s original name of Queene Street. It later became known as Knyfesmyth Street after those who traded there. The origins of the name Christmas Steps is contested; some say it could have morphed from Knfesmyth into the festive moniker of today. Others believe it is a nod to the nativity scene depicted in stained glass in the Three Kings of Cologne Chapel within Foster’s Almshouses on Colston Street.
New York-born high rope performer Carlos Trower lived on Christmas Steps in 1876
3) In 1876, high rope performer, abolitionist and philanthropist Carlos Trower lived at 7 Christmas Steps, now home to I Am Acrylic art shop. Known as ‘The African Blondin’, Trower used his platform to promote the emancipation of enslaved people before his death in 1889. The shop occupiers have hung a sign dedicated to Trower as an alternative to a blue plaque.
The premises now home to Ahh Toots was once one of the oldest fish and chip shops in the country
4) The premises at the bottom of the steps, now full of delicious sweet treats made by the team at Ahh Toots, was once home to a fish and chip shop that was among the oldest in England, having traded for more than 120 years.
This archway once marked the entrance to St Bartholomew’s Hospital, founded in 1240
5) The stone archway next door to Ahh Toots once marked the entrance to St Bartholomew’s Hospital, founded in 1240. It has housed both Bristol Grammar and QEH schools over the years.
6) During the English Civil War, colonel Henry Lunsford was fatally shot through the heart on the site of the steps during the storming of Bristol on July 26 1643. A plaque erected in his memory on the exterior of The Scrandit notes the steps were once known as Lunsford’s stairs after the “gallant royalist”.
7) The stairs themselves are grade II-listed, as are many of the buildings that flank them, and are marked at the Perry Street entrance with an ornate metal archway.
8) Zerodegrees at the very top of the stairs was built on the site of sheds that housed Bristol’s trams and the horses that pulled them.
The walls have eyes overlooking the Christmas Steps
9) Look up from Chance & Counters board game cafe and you’ll see a beady eye looking back at you. The mystery mosaic art feature is nestled in a niche high up on the wall of Ahh Toots.
The Christmas Steps pub was once called the Three Sugar Loaves
10) The Christmas Steps pub was formerly called the Three Sugar Loaves for a nearby sugar refinery that burned down in 1859 – one of 11 destroyed by fires across Bristol that year.
This feature originally appeared in the latest Bristol24/7 quarterly magazine, available free across our city
All photos: Ellie Pipe
Read next:
- Things you probably didn’t know about Bristol Beacon
- Pub of the Week: The Christmas Steps
- Ahh Toots launch online shop before opening of new cafe and bakery
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