I have recently opened a glorious contemporary jewellery shop at 33 Park Street. As a resident of Bristol for the last 60 years I am trying to remember Park Street in the 50s and in particular the history of no 33. I remember it as a post office - but when did it become a post office and what was it before that? And when did it stop being a postoffice? I can remember Brights and Maggs and Fortes all in Queens Road - but what shops were on Park Street then? Please help. Diana

Information from trade directories for England and Wales. 33 Park Street Bristol BS1.
1850s - A. Mosely Esq Dentist.
1860s - James Bullock - High Class Jeweller & Silversmith. Also 31 Milsom Street Bath.

I lived at Park street in the late 1980s.

1850s Webb & Son Manufacturers of Trunks & Leather Bags - 70 Park Street.
1849 Richard George Shum Tuckett Esq. Registrar - 35 Park Street.
1880s W.C. Heathcote The Dye Works Dry Cleaners - 8 Park Street.
1860s Masonic Hall - 1 & 2 Park Street.
1860s Mrs P.J. Elliott The Old Curiosity Shop - 42 Park Street.
1878 Mr Graham Tung Dental Surgeon - 7 Park Street.

Dembo & Sons Limited Park Street Bristol. 1961

There was a time about 30 years ago when Bristolians queued outside a little shop in The Mall, Clifton, waiting patiently to sell old gold and jewellery which had long since lost its use.

Those were the days of the" gold rush" and the shop was the first home of B. W. Dembo and Sons Ltd., the Bristol jewellers and watchmakers, whose head office is now in Park Street, City Centre.

This family business, which, like so many in Bristol, rebuilt itself from the ruins of the great German blitz of 1940, was founded more than 50 years ago by Mr. Louis Nathan Dembo, a shrewd businessman who knew his trade inside out even though he had very poor sight.

He had an uncanny sense of detection, and, according to his grandson, Mr. Leslie Dembo, a present director of the business, he could tell anything about a piece of antique jewellery just by the feel of it.

Mr. Dembo recalls: "It was quite amazing how he did it. Nothing got past him. He knew exactly what it was he was handling and from what period it originated."

Dembos launched a considerable portion of their trade on the wave of a nation-wide advertisement campaign. This coincided with a boom period when second hand jewellery and gold was bought and sold on a large scale. It is still done, of course, and Mr. Dembo encourages the sale of suitable trinkets wherever possible. He does, in fact, travel appreciably in a quest for fine-quality pieces.

A far-reaching retail trade was built up from that shop in The Mall. Sovereigns were bought and gold was traded in to be melted down. As the name of Dembo gained in reputation so letters of enquiry began to be received from all over the world.

From Morocco came consignments of gold.

Soon, the company had its own Post Office mailbag delivery system whereby a specially guarded van motored from Bristol to refiners in London and Birmingham.

It was inevitable that the existing shop premises would become too small to handle an expanding trade and, quite obviously it was time for a move. Dembos therefore took other premises in Queen’s Road, Clifton.

And it was from there that the go-ahead company raised a reputation for what is best in the antique trade. Antiques one suspects, were bigger business, perhaps, than they are today. It has diminished, it is true, although today Dembos still carry on a thriving trade in what is old.

Roman coins, for instance, continue to hold a curiosity all their own, and the company does have exported on their behalf ornate Victorian silverware particularly to America and to Italy.

But to get back to those pre-war days.

Trade continued to flourish and soon the company was able to open a shop at 69 Park Street, and another in Bridge Street, City Centre.

Dembos were now established.

Influential people became their customers among them the Emperor of Ethiopia, Haile Selassie, and his son, the Crown Prince, both of whom were living at Bath at the time. On several occasions they took trips to Bristol and purchased from Dembos personal gifts of their choice. The family got to know them well.

But disaster was to follow. It came with the outbreak of the Second World War. And it came the same night for both shops. That night in 1940 they were both razed to the ground by enemy action.

Little of the stock, worth thousands of pounds and built up over a number of years, was salvaged. It meant a new start. Dembos set about a revival." It came sooner than expected.

Mr. Bernard Dembo, who was never a man to miss an opportunity, saw that a shop at 6 Park Street, was vacant. A few makeshift arrangements were made. He moved in and within a matter of days trade was re-started right in the heart of Bristol.

Once again there were queues. American servicemen were scrambling for those "cute little antique things." Dembos bought up complete collections. But still the company could not get enough to meet the demand. Gradually, therefore, the main trend of trade moved away from antiques into modern design in jewellery and watches.

Says Mr. Dembo: "During the war it was a different sort of trade. Tastes and times change. We find that people have become and are becoming on the whole more interested in contemporary styles."

Yet there are facets of Dembos trade which the public never sees. The company is one of the largest suppliers of stop watches and industrial timers used by industries throughout the United Kingdom for time and motion study and in the laboratory.

Mr. Leslie Dembo did, in fact, give the first exhibition in this country devoted entirely to instruments used in time and motion study and for other industrial purposes.

The exhibition, in February, 1958, at the company’s premises in Park Street, was attended by industrial Representatives from various parts of the country.

Another Dembo speciality is complete architectural clock systems for such buildings as schools and banks. These clocks, big and small, are made for any building and from a design which can be chosen individually.

In the basement of Dembos shop in Park Street there is a display of clocks, exquisite and artistic, the most exclusive makes, one would imagine, in the business. These are, in fact, the "timepiece showpieces" of an art which is the product of the hands of the rare craftsmen.

Dembos are now back in the Broadmead shopping area and their premises in The Arcade was one of the first of the blitzed businesses to return there. A watch repair workshop is maintained at the Arcade and a few years ago the company had a more extensive workshop in the upstairs rooms at their Park Street premises.

An ace craftsman, Mr. G. H. Toms, was employed. Under him were three apprentice craftsmen. This skilled team made the finest rings and expertly repaired antiques. Unfortunately, however, Mr. Toms died about 12 months ago, and such was the precise calibre of his work that a replacement could not be found and the workshop was therefore closed.

It is one of the regrets of the company that the age-old craft of making jewellery by hand to a standard set by their former workshop has become a dying art. Says Mr. Dembo: "Nowadays more and more jewellery has become cast in order to produce it cheaply. They are often very good copies. Less and less jewellery, though is completely hand-made. That’s the sad thing about it."

In keeping with their up-to-the-minute ideas on design, Dembos opened last year Praesentia in Queen’s Road, Clifton, which presents most attractively what is foremost in kitchen fabrics, ovenware, cutlery and so on.

Mr. Dembo has been told—and there seems no reason for doubt—that this latest venture in the company’s eventful history is one of the most modern shops of its kind in the country.

Staff at Praesentia have found that people are becoming more and more design-conscious. This is naturally encouraged. Customers are invited to meander round the shop, looking and enquiring and not necessarily buying.

Praesentia, therefore, has made a considerable impact in a city not without its share of "artiness" in both the younger and the older generations. Students are encouraged to hand-paint fabrics and suggest ideas and create design.

Pottery made locally in Bristol and Somerset is also displayed in the shop which was, incidentally, designed by Mr. Brian Rushton, the Bristol designer. A special "corner" has been set aside for the work of a Scandinavian-trained silversmith, Stevan Trickey, who now lives and works in Bristol.

Customers are constantly looking for "bits and pieces" to add to their little collection of French and Italian cutlery or whatever their particular favourite might be.

Stock is imported direct from Paris and Milan. The work of several Continental and Scandinavian designers, the very elite of their profession, is displayed at Praesentia, and one can only marvel at the beauty of shape which has been moulded from what appears the simplest of design.

That, then, is the story of Dembos; a story which, like so many in this vein, began in a little shop. There is an eye to the future. Design is the predominant factor. Yet there is still a close link with the old. All in all, a trifle removed, perhaps, from the foresight of Mr. Louis Dembo, the founder. But that is a quirk of modern times.

Article written in the Illustrated Bristol News 1961

Buried treasure of the blitz

When the bombs started falling down on Bristol the night of the first great blitz, well-known jeweller Mr Chilcott of Chilcott’s in Park Street was more worried about his gold, silver and jewels than he was for his own skin. Park Street was one of the worst-hit areas that night of Sunday November 24th, 1940 but luckily Chilcott’s, established in 1808, was left standing in the sea of smoke, flames and rubble.

Standing, but wide open to temptation from looters who could easily have crawled in through the broken windows. Looting blitzed properties was one of the more unsavoury features of ‘our finest hour. So Mr Chillcott ignored the dangers, collected all the most expensive items he could carry from the shop and escaped through a trap door to the street outside. As the bombs continued to fall he hurried to the graveyard of St George’s Church just up the hill and secretly buried a fortune in valuables.

The next morning, as shattered Bristolians surveyed the wreck of Park Street, Mr Chillcott returned to the graveyard and recovered the ‘loot’.


The posh pawnshop’s discreet entrance

It wasn’t just the poor and working class who used Bristol’s many pawnshops in the bad old days, ‘quality’ folk weren’t above the services of the pawnbroker when times were hard. The smartest - and those with the most to lose should they be spotted by their respectable friends and neighbours and even, in some cases, wives and husbands - used the oh-so-discreet services of Messrs Chillcotts in Park Street.

Park Street was and is a very, very public place and one of the West Country’s most famous shopping streets, so no self-respecting person would be seen dead trying to pawn a bit of the family silver in the main shop. So instead Chillcotts installed a hatch at the back of the shop which shy pawners could use at night. Goods to be pawned could be slipped through the hatch with the owner’s name attached. Goods went down a chute to the back room and owners claimed the ticket the following day - using the back door in Great George Street for added discretion -when staff could make a discreet offer without causing embarrassment.

MY,how Bristol's once prestigious Park Street has changed. The picture from a hundred years ago shows just what a graceful place it was to shop in those Edwardian days of long ago. Strolling up, on the left, one could visit Avery's or Gilbey's for your wines and spirits, Arthur Cave or Bowen and Co, for a new suit and then pop into number 45, which housed the Servant's Registry, to see if they had managed to find you that extra housemaid yet.

You could then spend a while in Chicott's (it's still there, a rare survivor) perusing their jewellery before going on to Curry and Paxton to see if your new spectacles had been dispensed. On reaching the top you could see if that new book was in George's, still there today but now belonging to Blackwell's. On the other side of the street were yet more tailors, high-class milliners and costumiers, and at number 22, sandwiched between the grocers and the post office, was Norman Smith, saddler's and harness makers.

You'll notice a complete absence of motor vehicles, probably because the hill was just too steep for those early pioneers not prepared to risk a major breakdown before they had chugged to the top. If you think that there is something missing from the early picture, you're right. It's the University's Will's building with its tall tower, which wasn't erected until 1925.

BRISTOL THEN & NOW - PARK STREET - JUNE 1904 - JUNE 2004
Click or paste link to see Park Street Now & Then

http://www.bristolhistory.com/?pageid=59277

The Don, 45 and 46 Wine Street (Clothing)
The Bristol branch of the Don opened in 1883 under Manager W H Forsyth, who presided over a staff of 30. was one of many in towns throughout England. The upper floor housed workrooms, where at the end of the 19th century sewing machines were 'driven by an engine, also acting as the motor for the dynamo forming the generator for the electric light installation.' The height of technology in the high street.

While bespoke tailoring was carried on using these sewing machines, the ready to wear items were made at Stroud. This enabled them to charge the customer only one shilling per ready-made item over the cost price.

The handsome premises were destroyed during the Second World War, although the company carried on. Moving to the top of Park Street, particularly noted in the later years as recommended suppliers of school uniforms.

"Schools Park Street"

Bishop's College, Park Street
In a newspaper advertisement of September 1840 this was for boys of 9-16 years. Each day was commenced and terminated with prayers and scripture reading. Fees were £15 per year if boys were nominated by shareholders and £24 if not. There was a 6 week holiday in the summer, 5 weeks in the winter and 1 week at Easter.

In 1842 a Scholarship was set up in memory of the late Rev John Eden 'for the promotion of sound learning and religious education',

In a newspaper advertisement January 7th 1860 it was stated to be 'under the patronage of the Bishop of Bristol'. The school would 'provide for the youth of the higher classes of Bristol, Clifton and the neighbourhood a good general, classical and mathematical education based on the principles of free religion and suited to the requirements of the present day'. There were vacancies for a limited number of boarders.

In June 1860 Charles Greenland was picked up for begging in Park Street and sent to the school for 4 years. In the same year there were several cases of begging at the school itself, which also came before the Police Court. Some examples were:

Thomas Strong in June. Mr Hibbins (sic), the master said that he came every day for 3 months for food and he had sent for his mother who had promised to keep him at home, but he kept coming. She was a poor widow woman, her husband having died 3 months ago, after which she had taken to drink. The magistrates sent him to the school for 5 years on condition that his mother paid 1/- a week for maintenance.

In March William York was begging and his stepfather when contacted promised to take care of him.

Thomas Tucker also was charged with begging at the school in August. His mother stated that he was a very bad boy who had been in several employs. She had been widowed for 16 months and had 7 children. She supported herself by selling baskets and got subsistence from the parish. He was sent to the Industrial School for 4 years.

Thomas Harrris also found begging at the school was sent there for 3 years..

John Nicholls had applied to the master for assistance in January, but he was an orphan maintaining himself by begging and as every boy cost the charity £14 10/- per year and all the school got from the government was £7 in this case the master thought it was a case for the Reformatory, so he was sent there for 5 years.

In December 1861 Thomas Young, a little boy was begging from Rev D Cooper and he was sent to the school.

In March 1862 William Lloyd was found wandering the streets with no place of residence and was so charged at Bristol Police Court. He was sentenced to seven days hard labour. It was discovered that he had run away from the school 'where he had been kindly received'.

Mrs Cottrell's School for Young Ladies, Fairfield House, Upper Park Street

Day and Boarding school. Listed in 1861 as Cottrell & Fox.

In January 1865 advertised as Rockfield House Establishment, Upper Park Street, Clifton.
'Mrs Cottrell is returning thanks to her friends for their liberal support and patronage and begs to inform them that the duties of her school will be resumed on January 9th.
Yearly boarding scholars including washing, Writing and Arithmetic etc 15 guineas
Weekly boarders 13 guineas
Day Scholars 3 guineas.
French and music on moderate terms.

In January 1869 Mrs Cottrell wished to draw her school to the particular attention of the friends of those whose education had been neglected. Board and instruction for those over 12 years was 18 guineas, under 12 was 17 guineas. Weekly boarders paid 16 guineas, daily pupils 2 guineas. Music and French each cost 2 guineas extra. Still listed 1872

Miss George's School for Young Ladies, 10 Park Street

Boarding school listed 1861-72

Misses Hazel's School for Ladies, 10 Park Street, Clifton

Boarding school 1832

Rev W Jones' School for Young Gentlemen, 5 Upper Park Street

Boarding school listed 1861-65

Misses Marshall's School for Young Ladies, 16 Park Street

Day and boarding school listed 1861
Miss Stevens' School for Young Ladies, 89 Park Street
1898.

Directory Bristol 1830

ALEXANDER Abraham Consul for Russia 37 Park Street, Bristol
ALEXANDER J.F. Consul for Germany & Saxony 41 Park Street, Bristol
ATKINSON John Bookseller/Stationer/Binder 43 Park Street, Bristol
BECK Mrs. Milliner 46 Park Street, Bristol
BISSE William Boarding / Lodging House 22 Park St, Bristol
BOMPASS George Physician 32 Park Street, Bristol
BONBONOUS Martha Mrs. Private House 54 Park Street, Bristol
BROCK William W. Physician 7 Park Street, Bristol
BROOKES John Boarding / Lodging House 15 Park St, Bristol
DANIEL Henry Surgeon 16 Park Street, Bristol
DAVIES David Physician 17 Park Street, Bristol
DAVIES Frans. Ladies' Boarding School 42 Park Street, Bristol
DYER S. & E. Misses Private House 25 Park Street, Bristol
DYER Thomas Webb Physician 63 Park Street, Bristol
HANSON Richard Charles Surgeon 5 Park Street, Bristol
HARRISON John Surgeon 44 Park Street, Bristol
HAWKINS John Grocer / Tea Dealer 67 Park Street, Bristol
HUNT Charles & Edward Merchant Park Street, Bristol
JAMES Richard Carver / Guilder 2 Park Street, College Green
KENTISH Edward Physician 27 Park Street, Bristol
LEWIS Thomas Tailor 61 Park Street, Bristol
LORD Elizabeth Miss 26 Park Street, Bristol
LOWE Richard Surgeon 18 Park Street, Bristol
MUSGROVE Mary Ann Boarding / Lodging House 12 Park Street, Bristol
PHELPS Miss 19 Park Street, Bristol
SLADE Edward W. Baker 1 Park St, College Green, Bristol
STRACHAN John & Co. Tailor 60 Park Street, Bristol
THOMAS Frederick Portrait Artist Park Row, Park Street, Bristol
WALLIS George Physician 30 Park Street, Bristol
WILLIAMS Thomas John Tailor 50 Park Street, Bristol