Canynge Square
Canynge Square Garden is open to the public this year for the first time in 5 years. On December 20th, 2020 at 10:30pm in the evening there was a huge bang and a Pagoda tree at the north end of the garden dropped into a huge hole about 30-40 feet deep. Fortunately, nobody was in the garden at the time, but 5 days before, the whole of the Bristol City Choir had been performing on that same spot. We are so lucky it did not collapse then.
After considerable research and extensive investigations by the Council it was concluded that the collapse had been caused by the roots of the Pagoda tree over a period of 150 years loosening the keys stones of two enormous cellars that had been built in 1847 as part of a proposed “dream house” – No 9 Albert Villas which was to be on the garden side of the road opposite 1-8 Albert Villas. But Evans, the builder, went bankrupt after completing the first four houses 1-4 Albert Villas (33-30 Canynge Square) and up to the walls of the first floor of Nos 5-8 Albert Villas (29-26 Canynge Square). It was not until 1853 that 5-8 Albert villas were completed under the instruction of William Bruce Gingell, one of Bristol’s leading architects, and the north end of the garden completed and the cellar of No 9 forgotten until 167 years later when the hole dramatically appeared.
From 1842 the Square was three separate roads, Seymour Place (to the South), Cambridge Place (to the East) and Albert Villas (to the North). The houses on the West side were individually named. The Square was finally named Canynge Square in 1880, but from 1880 to 1887 the numbering system was a bit chaotic with odds one side and evens the other and the current numbering system, which is sequential anticlockwise was not brought in until 1887. Once renamed “Canynge Square” a Garden Committee was formed in June 1880. There is a minute book running through to November 1975 which has been bound and has been archived, but still available for residents who would like to read it and do research. For example, Philip Polack, to commemorate the centenary of the Garden Committee wrote a small book entitled “Canynge Square, Clifton – A Brief History” published by Redcliffe Press Ltd in 1983 (ISBN 0 905459 72 5), where he draws on a number of stories and quotations from these minutes. The Square was named after the prosperous 15th century Bristol merchant, William Canynges, who was Mayor of Bristol 5 times and MP for Bristol three times. He had a fleet of 9 ships and employed 800 sailors.
Clifton & Hotwells Improvement Society has erected two plaques in Canynge Square: one for Samuel Jackson, an artist who was the first owner of No 8 and did the illustrations for Brunel’s suspension bridge in the 1830s and one for Jeremy Rees who lived at No 20 and was the founder of the Bristol Arnolfini Gallery. Another unique feature of Canynge Square is that 3 of the 6 lampposts are the original gas lamps and run 24x7.
Canynge Square today is a lovely community to live in. The Canynge Square Garden Committee not only looks after the garden but holds regular events, ranging from the midsummer breakfast, carol singing and easter egg hunts to the progressive dinner where participating residents are successively hosted at different houses for each course.
The novel “Chatterton Square” by E.H. Young and published by Jonathan Cape, London in 1947 was supposedly set in the Square. There are still novelists living in the square now – Helen Blenkinsop writing as A.A. Abbott and Tim Davidson. Both will be exhibiting their books on the open day. There will also be refreshments & prosecco, 1:30 – 2:00pm Tobacco Factory Singers, a display of the 6-year Canynge Square collapsed cellar saga and there will be a plant expert on hand from Almondsbury Garden Centre.
[1] Canynge Square – a Brief History by Philip Polack. Can be seen on the Canynge Square web site (https://canyngesquare.uk)
