EPW033149 ENGLAND (1930). The Wills Memorial Building, Museum, University of Bristol and environs, Bristol, 1930

A superb image of one of the more familiar townscapes in this famous old city, with the dominant feature of George Oatley's 1925 Wills Memorial Tower at the top of Park Street. To generations of Bristolians, including thousands of university undergraduates, the hourly mellow tones from Wills Tower have been a traditional feature: what Basil Cottle called "...the warm and pure E flat of Great George's ten tons-the fourth biggest bell in Britain, and the deepest."



German bombing of Bristol began in earnest in November 1940 and on the night of Sunday 24th, a stick of firebombs from a Heinkel 111 fell across the line of the Geography Department, the Great Hall and the City Museum, causing severe damage. However, the reaction of the University was predictable. Within days, lectures had recommenced and students were reminded that "..classes would continue even if German troops were moving up Park Street!" Thankfully, the damaged late-Victorian buildings were repaired and restored to accommodate the rising number of students in the post-war University.