Bristol riots
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The Bristol riots refer to a number of significant
riot A riot is a form of civil disorder commonly characterized by a group lashing out in a violent public disturbance against authority, property, or people. Riots typically involve destruction of property, public or private. The property targete ...
s in the city of
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 ...
in England.


Bristol Bridge riot, 1793

In 1794 the populace of Bristol were said to be "apt to collect in mobs on the slightest occasions; but have been seldom so spirited as in the late transactions on Bristol-bridge." The Bristol Bridge Riot of 30 September 1793 began as a protest at renewal of an act levying tolls on
Bristol Bridge Bristol Bridge is a bridge over the floating harbour in Bristol, England. The floating harbour was constructed on the original course of the River Avon, and there has been a bridge on the site since long before the harbour was created by impou ...
, which included the proposal to demolish several houses near the bridge in order to create a new access road, and controversy about the date for removal of gates. Eleven people were killed and 45 injured, making it one of the worst massacres of the 18th century in England.


New Cut riot, 1809

Following the successful completion of the New Cut artificial waterway, the
Bristol floating harbour Bristol Harbour is the harbour in the city of Bristol, England. The harbour covers an area of . It is the former natural tidal river Avon through the city but was made into its current form in 1809 when the tide was prevented from going out per ...
project was certified as complete on 1 May 1809, and a celebratory dinner was held on Spike Island for a thousand of the
navvies Navvy, a clipping of navigator ( UK) or navigational engineer ( US), is particularly applied to describe the manual labourers working on major civil engineering projects and occasionally (in North America) to refer to mechanical shovels and eart ...
, navigational engineers who had worked on the construction. At the dinner "two oxen, roasted whole, a proportionate weight of potatoes, and six hundredweight of plum pudding" were served, along with a gallon of strong beer for each man. When the beer ran out a mass brawl between English and Irish labourers turned into a riot which had to be suppressed by a Naval
press gang ''Press Gang'' is a British children's television comedy drama consisting of 43 episodes across five series that were broadcast from 1989 to 1993. It was produced by Richmond Film & Television for Central, and screened on the ITV network in it ...
.


Queen Square riots, 1831

The Bristol Riots of 1831 took place after the
House of Lords The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the Bicameralism, upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by Life peer, appointment, Hereditary peer, heredity or Lords Spiritual, official function. Like the ...
rejected the second
Reform Bill In the United Kingdom, Reform Act is most commonly used for legislation passed in the 19th century and early 20th century to enfranchise new groups of voters and to redistribute seats in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. ...
, which aimed to get rid of some of the
rotten boroughs A rotten or pocket borough, also known as a nomination borough or proprietorial borough, was a parliamentary borough or constituency in England, Great Britain, or the United Kingdom before the Reform Act 1832, which had a very small electora ...
and give Britain's fast growing industrial towns such as Bristol,
Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...
,
Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...
,
Bradford Bradford is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Bradford district in West Yorkshire, England. The city is in the Pennines' eastern foothills on the banks of the Bradford Beck. Bradford had a population of 349,561 at the 2011 ...
and
Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by populati ...
greater representation in the House of Commons. Bristol had been represented in the
House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...
since 1295, but by 1830 only 6,000 of the 104,000 population had the vote. Local magistrate Sir Charles Wetherell, a strong opponent of the Bill, visited Bristol to open the new
Assize Court The courts of assize, or assizes (), were periodic courts held around England and Wales until 1972, when together with the quarter sessions they were abolished by the Courts Act 1971 and replaced by a single permanent Crown Court. The assizes e ...
s, on 29 October. He threatened to imprison participants in a disturbance going on outside, and an
angry mob Mob rule or ochlocracy ( el, ὀχλοκρατία, translit=okhlokratía; la, ochlocratia) is the rule of government by a mob or mass of people and the intimidation of legitimate authorities. Insofar as it represents a pejorative for majorit ...
chased him to the Mansion House in Queen Square. The magistrate escaped in disguise, although a contemporary history states he escaped over the rooftops, but the mayor and officials were besieged in the Mansion-house. The rioters numbered about 500 or 600 young men and continued for three days, during which the palace of Robert Gray the
Bishop of Bristol A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ca ...
, the Mansion House, and private homes and property were looted and destroyed, along with demolition of much of the
gaol A prison, also known as a jail, gaol (dated, standard English, Australian, and historically in Canada), penitentiary (American English and Canadian English), detention center (or detention centre outside the US), correction center, correct ...
. Work on the
Clifton Suspension Bridge The Clifton Suspension Bridge is a suspension bridge spanning the Avon Gorge and the River Avon, linking Clifton in Bristol to Leigh Woods in North Somerset. Since opening in 1864, it has been a toll bridge, the income from which provides fun ...
was halted and
Isambard Kingdom Brunel Isambard Kingdom Brunel (; 9 April 1806 – 15 September 1859) was a British civil engineer who is considered "one of the most ingenious and prolific figures in engineering history," "one of the 19th-century engineering giants," and "one ...
was sworn in as a special constable. The mayor,
Charles Pinney Charles Pinney (29 April 179317 July 1867) was a British merchant and local politician in Bristol, England. He was a partner in a family business that ran sugar plantations in the West Indies and owned a number of slaves. Pinney was selected as ma ...
, requested the assistance of the cavalry as a precaution and a troop of the
3rd Dragoon Guards The 3rd (Prince of Wales's) Dragoon Guards was a cavalry regiment in the British Army, first raised in 1685 as the Earl of Plymouth's Regiment of Horse. It was renamed as the 3rd Regiment of Dragoon Guards in 1751 and the 3rd (Prince of Wales's) ...
and a squadron of the
14th Light Dragoons The 14th King's Hussars was a cavalry regiment in the British Army, first raised in 1715. It saw service for two centuries, including the First World War, before being amalgamated with the 20th Hussars to form the 14th/20th King's Hussars in 192 ...
were sent to Bristol under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel
Thomas Brereton Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas Brereton (1782–1832) was an officer of the British Army. Career He was descended from Sir William Brereton, Chief Justice and Lord High Marshal of Ireland, from the ancient and noble family of Brereton, Cheshire, En ...
. Brereton did not wish to incite the crowd and even ordered the squadron from the 14th out of the city after they had successfully dispersed a crowd. Seeing this as a victory, the riots continued, and eventually Brereton had to call on the 3rd and 14th to restore order and he eventually led a charge with drawn swords through the mob in Queen Square. Four rioters were killed and 86 wounded, although many more are believed to have perished in the fires set by the rioters, with a total death toll put as high as 500. Along with the commander of the 3rd Dragoons troop, Captain Warrington, Brereton was later court-martialled for leniency, but Brereton shot himself before the conclusion of his trial. Approximately 100 of those involved were tried in January 1832 by Chief Justice Tindal. Four men were hanged despite a
petition A petition is a request to do something, most commonly addressed to a government official or public entity. Petitions to a deity are a form of prayer called supplication. In the colloquial sense, a petition is a document addressed to some offici ...
of 10,000 Bristolian signatures, which was given to
King William IV William IV (William Henry; 21 August 1765 – 20 June 1837) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and King of Hanover from 26 June 1830 until his death in 1837. The third son of George III, William succeeded h ...
. The mayor, Pinney, was tried for negligence but exonerated.


Old Market riot, 1932

On 23 February 1932, in reaction to the government reducing unemployment benefit by 10 per cent, around 4,000 protestors tried to march down to the city centre, led by the
National Unemployed Workers Movement The National Unemployed Workers' Movement was a British organisation set up in 1921 by members of the Communist Party of Great Britain. It aimed to draw attention to the plight of unemployed workers during the post First World War slump, the 1926 ...
. Throughout the protest, police showed heavy resistance, drawing their batons and deploying mounted police on horseback, which caused retaliation from protestors. This behaviour climaxed with the police baton-charging protesters outside Trinity police station and along Old Market. Many people, including bystanders, were injured. Gradually over the next five years, unemployment in Bristol reduced and by 1937 just 11,500 people were registered unemployed in the city, contrasted to the 28,000 or so that were registered as unemployed at the time of the riot.


Park Street riot 1944

The Park Street riot occurred in Park Street and George Street on 15 July 1944. Racial tensions inflamed by earlier incidents, and the racial segregation of GIs both in the UK and abroad, came to a head in Bristol when a large number of black
GIs A geographic information system (GIS) is a type of database containing Geographic data and information, geographic data (that is, descriptions of phenomena for which location is relevant), combined with Geographic information system software, sof ...
refused to come back to their camps after
US Military Police The United States Army Military Police Corps (USAMPC) is the uniformed law enforcement branch of the United States Army. Investigations are conducted by Military Police Investigators under the Provost Marshal General's Office or Special Agents ...
came to end a minor fracas. More MPs were sent, up to 120 policemen, and Park Street was closed off with buses. In subsequent confrontation, an MP was stabbed, a black GI was shot dead, and several others were wounded.


St Pauls riot, 1980

The
St Pauls riot The St Pauls riot occurred in St Pauls, Bristol, England on 2 April 1980 when police raided the Black and White Café on Grosvenor Road in the heart of the area. After several hours of disturbance in which fire engines and police cars were dama ...
started on 2 April 1980 in the
St Pauls St Paul's Cathedral is an Anglican cathedral in London and is the seat of the Bishop of London. The cathedral serves as the mother church of the Diocese of London. It is on Ludgate Hill at the highest point of the City of London and is a Grad ...
district, as a consequence of racial tensions between Black members of the community and the police, including concerns over
sus law In England and Wales, the sus law (from "suspected person") was a stop and search law that permitted a police officer to stop, search and potentially arrest people on suspicion of them being in breach of section 4 of the Vagrancy Act 1824. Acc ...
s, poor housing and alienation of Black youth. When 20 police officers carried out a raid on the
Black and White Café The Black and White Café was a café in St Pauls, Bristol, in the United Kingdom, that opened in 1971, owned by the Wilks family. The Caribbean food café had a reputation as a drug den and was raided more times by the police than any other premis ...
located on Grosvenor Road in the heart of St Pauls, they faced resistance, which escalated into a riot. The riot continued for many hours and caused large amounts of damage including a
Lloyds Bank Lloyds Bank plc is a British retail banking, retail and commercial bank with branches across England and Wales. It has traditionally been considered one of the "Big Four (banking), Big Four" clearing house (finance), clearing banks. Lloyds B ...
and post office, several fire engines and twelve police cars. Thirty-three people were injured, including 21 policemen and three firemen, and 21 arrests were made, but no one was ever convicted of any crime.


St Paul's riot, 1986

Clashes with police also occurred in the same area during 1980 and 1986, as the issues that had led to the riot some 6 years previously hung in the air. On 7 May 1986, "Avon and Somerset Police organized a large raid in the St Paul's district of Bristol. Almost exactly one year after the
1985 Handsworth riots The second Handsworth riots took place in the Handsworth district of Birmingham, West Midlands, from 9 to 11 September 1985. The riots were reportedly sparked by the arrest of a man near the Acapulco Cafe, Lozells and a police raid on the ''Vil ...
, 600 police moved into the area to search premises in connection with drugs and drinking offences. The reaction was serious rioting and attacks on police". On the final day of the clash, 9 May, "2 cops are injured when their patrol car is attacked by stones and other missiles in the third day of disturbances." In 1996 ''
The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...
'' published an article stating "Inner-city area struggles to lose violent image", but by 2017 not only was the city of Bristol named best place to live in the whole of the UK in March by ''
The Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News UK, whi ...
'', but St Paul's itself was dubbed fifth ‘coolest’ place to live by The Times the same month.


Hartcliffe, 1992

On 16 July 1992 a riot occurred on the
Hartcliffe Hartcliffe is the name of both a council ward and an Outer Suburb of the city of Bristol in the United Kingdom which lies within that ward. The ward contains the areas of Hartcliffe and Headley Park, as well as small portions of Withywood and B ...
estate after Shaun Star and his friend were killed by police on a stolen unmarked police motorbike the two men had previously stolen from the local area. Both men got knocked off and killed by a police patrol car after being chased around the estate. The two deceased men were well known within the community, while the officers involved were not trained in safe pursuit, and had not followed procedures. Tensions were already high between the authorities and community as a result of distrust of the police and issues with deprivation in the area, and they were compounded during the disturbance by the breaking news that Hartcliffe had been denied funding from the government's City Challenge Initiative for the second year running. In total the disturbance lasted for 3 days. Police were attacked and many of the already rundown shops in the Symes Avenue shopping centre were torched, smashed up and damaged. Around 80 or so arrests led to more than 60 people charged and taken through the courts, and the policeman who had swerved his car into the path of the motorbike, was found guilty of causing the two deaths by dangerous driving.


Stokes Croft (Tesco Metro, Telepathic Heights), April 2011

A riot began in front of a new Tesco Metro at the southern end of Cheltenham Road on 21 April 2011. Allegedly in protest at the opening of a new Tesco Metro, the riot began when police raided a squat, known as Telepathic Heights, opposite the store. Skips and bins were set alight, bottles thrown, and running battles occurred between police and protestors up and down the street until the early hours of the morning.


National riots, August 2011

Protests had started in
Tottenham Tottenham () is a town in North London, England, within the London Borough of Haringey. It is located in the ceremonial county of Greater London. Tottenham is centred north-northeast of Charing Cross, bordering Edmonton to the north, Waltham ...
, London, following the shooting of Mark Duggan, a local man who was shot dead by police on 4 August. In the early hours of the morning on Tuesday 9 August, it was reported that vandalism and looting occurred in Bristol in response to similar occurring elsewhere in the country.


Kill the Bill protest, March 2021

A riot began outside Bridewell police station, in the centre of the city, on Sunday 21 March 2021 as the culmination of a protest against what became the
Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that was introduced by the Home Office and the Ministry of Justice. It gives more power to the police, criminal justice, and sentencing legi ...
. Police vans were set on fire, including one containing officers. Initial reports from police stated that officers had suffered broken bones, but these statements proved to be false. Further protests occurred on 23 and 26 March, turning violent at police moved to disband the protestors.


See also

*
Peterloo Massacre The Peterloo Massacre took place at St Peter's Field, Manchester, Lancashire, England, on Monday 16 August 1819. Fifteen people died when cavalry charged into a crowd of around 60,000 people who had gathered to demand the reform of parliament ...
*
Urban riots Riots often occur in reaction to a perceived grievance or out of dissent. Riots may be the outcome of a sporting event, although many riots have occurred due to poor working or living conditions, government oppression, conflicts between races or r ...


References


External links


BBC Bristol microsite on 1831 Queens Square riot


by James Fawckner Nicholls and John Taylor, published in 1882. {{Riots in England 1793 riots 1831 riots 1932 riots 1992 riots 2011 riots History of Bristol Riots and civil disorder in England 1793 in England 1831 in England 1932 in England 1992 in England 2011 in England Crime in Bristol