Tyndall's Park is an area of central
Bristol, England. It lies north of Park Row and Queen's Road, east of
Whiteladies Road
Whiteladies Road is a main road in Bristol, England. It runs north from the Victoria Rooms to Durdham Down, and separates Clifton on the west side from Redland and Cotham on the east. It forms part of the A4018.
Significant buildings on W ...
and west of St Michael's Hill, between the districts of
Clifton
Clifton may refer to:
People
*Clifton (surname)
*Clifton (given name)
Places
Australia
* Clifton, Queensland, a town
**Shire of Clifton
*Clifton, New South Wales, a suburb of Wollongong
*Clifton, Western Australia
Canada
*Clifton, Nova Scotia ...
,
Cotham and
Kingsdown. It includes the campus of
Bristol Grammar School, and many of the buildings of the
University of Bristol.
The area is named after
Thomas Tyndall
Thomas Tyndall (bapt. 26 March 1723 – 17 April 1794) was an English merchant and banker from Bristol with extensive slave trade connections.
Tyndall was the son of Onesiphorus Tyndall and Elizabeth Cowles and baptised in the Unitarian church. ...
, a Bristol merchant and investor in the
slave trade who between 1753 and 1767 bought a number of fields which then existed in the area and turned them into an ornamental park. He built a stately house on the crest of the hill, on the site of a
Civil War fortification, and named it Fort Royal (now known as
Royal Fort House
The Royal Fort House is a historic house in Tyndalls Park, Bristol. The building currently houses the University of Bristol's Faculty of Science offices, the Brigstow Institute, Elizabeth Blackwell Institute for Health Research, the Cabot Institu ...
). In 1799 Tyndall's son Colonel Thomas Tyndall employed
Humphrey Repton to landscape the gardens.
In 1825 and 1833, two roads (Aberdeen Road and West Park) were built in the north western corner of the park, and developed for housing. In 1852 the Tyndalls began selling off the remainder of the western half of the park for development, and in 1877 were sold for a new building for Bristol Grammar School. From 1880, more land was sold to
University College, Bristol
University College, Bristol was an educational institution which existed from 1876 to 1909. It was the predecessor institution to the University of Bristol, which gained a royal charter in 1909. During its time the college mainly served the midd ...
. The Royal Fort was occupied by members of the Tyndall family until 1916, when
Henry Herbert Wills bought it and gave it to the University.
References
{{Bristol
Areas of Bristol
1767 establishments in England