The Commercial Rooms () are in

Corn Street Corn Street, together with Broad Street, Wine Street and High Street, is one of the four cross streets which met at the Bristol High Cross, the heart of Bristol, England when it was a walled medieval town. From this crossroads Corn Street an ...

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. Built in 1810 by Charles Busby, the building has sculpture by J. G. Bubb. Originally it housed a club for mercantile interests and during the mid-19th century it was a haunt of local prostitutes. The retained

wind vane A wind vane, weather vane, or weathercock is an instrument used for showing the direction of the wind. It is typically used as an architectural ornament to the highest point of a building. The word ''vane'' comes from the Old English word , m ...

above the bar would let merchants know whether it was safe for their ships to negotiate the treacherous Avon Gorge, and the wall boards still contain the names of all the club's presidents, treasurers and secretaries. It is now a

pub A pub (short for public house) is a kind of drinking establishment which is licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term ''public house'' first appeared in the United Kingdom in late 17th century, and was ...

owned by

Wetherspoons J D Wetherspoon plc (branded variously as Wetherspoon or Wetherspoons, and colloquially known as Spoons) is a pub company operating in the United Kingdom and Ireland. The company was founded in 1979 by Tim Martin and is based in Watford. It op ...

History

The first formal site for businessmen to meet in Bristol was the Tolzey in 1614 which was built onto the south wall of

All Saints' Church All Saints Church, or All Saints' Church or variations on the name may refer to: Albania *All Saints' Church, Himarë Australia *All Saints Church, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory * All Saints Anglican Church, Henley Brook, Western Austr ...

.Clarke, ''The Commercial Rooms 1811-1951'', JW Arrowsmiths, 1951 The Exchange was built in 1743, originally for use by all commercial businesses in Bristol but once the Commercial Rooms opened in 1808 the Exchange became the headquarters of the corn trade. The first president of the Commercial Rooms was

John Loudon McAdam John Loudon McAdam (23 September 1756 – 26 November 1836) was a Scottish civil engineer and road-builder. He invented a new process, "macadamisation", for building roads with a smooth hard surface, using controlled materials of m ...

, inventor of tarmac, in 1808. The first telegraph office in Bristol was established in the Commercial Rooms in 1852 with a telegraph line out to

Shirehampton Shirehampton is a district of Bristol in England, near Avonmouth, at the northwestern edge of the city. It originated as a separate village, retains a High Street with a parish church and shops, and is still thought of as a village by many of it ...

so that the messenger announcing ships entering the

Bristol Channel The Bristol Channel ( cy, Môr Hafren, literal translation: "Severn Sea") is a major inlet in the island of Great Britain, separating South Wales from Devon and Somerset in South West England. It extends from the lower estuary of the River Seve ...

no longer had to ride by horseback into the city. After the

Bristol Blitz The Bristol Blitz was the heavy bombing of Bristol, England by the Nazi German ''Luftwaffe'' during the Second World War. Due to the presence of Bristol Harbour and the Bristol Aeroplane Company, the city was a target for bombing and was easi ...

in the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

conservation and restoration work was needed inside and out due to bomb damage, including recreating the head of one of the statues on the roof. In 1951 the Great Room featured a 'tape machine' which fed stocks and shares information to the room. In summertime this machine was also used to broadcast cricket scores. The building has been designated by

English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses. The charity states that i ...

as a grade II*

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

Architecture and decoration

The portico is of the Grecian

Ionic order The Ionic order is one of the three canonic orders of classical architecture, the other two being the Doric and the Corinthian. There are two lesser orders: the Tuscan (a plainer Doric), and the rich variant of Corinthian called the composite or ...

, with the three statues above personifying the City, Commerce and Navigation. Above the columns is a relief showing

Britannia Britannia () is the national personification of Britain as a helmeted female warrior holding a trident and shield. An image first used in classical antiquity, the Latin ''Britannia'' was the name variously applied to the British Isles, Great ...

Minerva Minerva (; ett, Menrva) is the Roman goddess of wisdom, justice, law, victory, and the sponsor of arts, trade, and strategy. Minerva is not a patron of violence such as Mars, but of strategic war. From the second century BC onward, the Roma ...

and

Neptune Neptune is the eighth planet from the Sun and the farthest known planet in the Solar System. It is the fourth-largest planet in the Solar System by diameter, the third-most-massive planet, and the densest giant planet. It is 17 times ...

receiving gifts from earth.

References

{{Reflist Grade II* listed buildings in Bristol Commercial buildings completed in 1810

History

Archives

Architecture and decoration

See also

References