The clock on the Corn Exchange has an extra minute hand. This recalls early Victorian days, when Bristol was in two minds about the correct time. Today we take Greenwich Mean Time for granted but before 1880 no standard time existed in the British Isles. Every city had its own local time, reckoned by the sun and by church bells. Bristol lies 2 degrees, 36 minutes west of the Greenwich Meridian and so the sun reaches its noon peak 11 minutes later than in London. Before the growth of railways, most people spent their lives close to home and so most were unaware of any time difference.For Bristolians a change came in June 1841, when the first through train from London pulled into Temple Meads Station. Brunel's Great Western Railway began to tempt people to travel. Now they could go to London in hours rather than days.The Railways ran on London time (GMT) so if you wanted to catch a train at noon from Temple Meads you had to remember that it would pull out at 11.49 Bristol Time.
To help Bristolians catch their trains, Bristol Corporation arranged for the main public clock on the Corn Exchange to show both local and GMT with two minute hands. Other clocks in Bristol then adopted the same compromise. In September 1852 Bristol adopted GMT and Bristol time became the same as London.
I know that Manchester and Newcastle have been voted as England's best two cities for having fun (What happened to London?) but Bristol is pretty good, with lots of restaurants - including nice 'fry up' breakfast places with newspapers and large pots of tea, harbourside bars, dozens (hundreds?) of traditional pubs, i.e. real ales and no slot machines - though we haven't tried the Scrumpy yet - great walks, plus large and small music and theatre venues. Between the showers we walked the waterfront, where the SS Great Britain is berthed.The SS Great Britain was a world first when she was launched in Bristol in 1843. Isambard Kingdom Brunel conceived the groundbreaking combination of a screw propeller, an iron hull, and a massive 1000-horsepower steam engine. She was immediately successful - on her maiden voyage across the Atlantic the SS Great Britain easily broke the previous speed record.
Bristol abounds with beautiful buildings. Though not on any cultural heritage trail, the one pictured below is quite nice - Laura & Joe's flat!
