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Quay Head House Colston Avenue, Bristol, 1884

Help us research

Much of what we know about Quay Head House came from a handful of archive references and old blog posts. There is a lot more out there. If you enjoy local history, here is where we would look next, and the questions we most want answered.

The big questions

  • Who rented the building from Bristol Municipal Charities after 1938?
  • When did the charity sell it, and to whom?
  • Which businesses had offices here in the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s? One window had a sign reading “blue”.
  • When did it fall empty, who squatted it, and were they the Cloak & Dinner collective?
  • Whose coats of arms are painted on the shields under the first-floor windows?
  • Was there a building on the site before 1884?
  • Is there any photograph of the building with water still in front of it, between 1884 and 1893?

At Bristol Archives

Bristol Archives is at B Bond Warehouse on Smeaton Road. You can search the catalogue online and order documents to view in the reading room.

  • 33041/Mgt/1/120: Bristol Municipal Charities property files, including “Quay Head House, 1964 to 1975”.
  • 33041/BMC/12/1/b/40: the 1906 photograph of the building.
  • Bristol Municipal Charities minute books from the early 1880s, for the decision to build, and from the 1930s, for the move to Orchard Street.
  • 43207/15/74 and 75: Edwardian postcards titled “The Quay-Head, Bristol”, not yet digitised.
  • 17563/1/900 to 905: drawings and photographs of Demerara House and its figurehead.
  • Building plans deposited with the City Planning Officer, indexed by street.

Elsewhere

  • Kelly’s and Wright’s street directories at Bristol Central Library list the occupants of each address year by year, up to around the 1970s.
  • Bristol City Council’s planning register online. Search for Quay Head House: applications usually name the occupier and the previous use.
  • Know Your Place West of England, for historic maps of the site from the 1840s onwards.
  • Britain from Above, for aerial photographs. Image EPW047090 shows Colston Avenue in May 1935.
  • BBC Radio Bristol, which interviewed the Cloak & Dinner collective on 14 January 2010.
  • Charity on Camera in Edwardian Bristol by Kieran Costello (1997), for the charity’s whole 1906 photographic survey.

Found something? Send it in and choose “I have photos or documents of it”. Even a single directory entry with a name and a year is a real help.

Were you ever inside?

An office job, a night out, a sleeping bag on the floor, a photo in a family album. Whatever your connection, it belongs in the archive.

  • Photos of the inside or outside, from any decade
  • Memories of working, drinking, eating or living here
  • Letters, menus, adverts, plans or anything with the address on
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