The Bristol Railway Archive

Had to shorten the question for the subject heading. What I mean is what happened to the old BR sign that used to be on the oustide of the main entrance building. It used to say Bristol Temple Meads, along with the BR sign. It was just below the clock. The last time I remember seeing it was about 1995, they took it down for some reason, and have never put it back again. For me, the station has lost some of it's character by the absence of that sign.

I've done a search on the net for how the station used to look when that sign was there. But to no avail.

This is how it looks now, with the absence of that sign.....

Probably removed as part of the BDC assisted revamp of the incline in the 90's. The BDC went out of existence in 1995, and this was one of the last things they done, so 1995 would be about right.

I have the plans for that online:

http://bristol-rail.co.uk/wiki/index.ph ... ments_1992

Doesn't mention the removal of the sign, but I'd guess you're right.

Oh my that brings back memories, i can remember working on this. Big arguments on how to lay cobbles.

Slightly off topic from the original request but I do find the approach road very irritating. Getting to/from work can be quite a stuggle with buses, taxis and pedestrians all over the place. Looking at the plans it appears that the problem is there are more buses then the system appears to have been designed for?

Alex

There were so may arguments about what to do with the access to Temple Meads. There were plans to build a new entrance to the side on what is the car park to side of the old station, that was scuppered because of political battles between the BDC BCC and BR. The BDC wanted some of the car park for development. BR wanted access to what used to be theirs the old goods yard but the BDC seen it as to valuable. Then there was BCC with their dreams of the METRO. so everything was compromised. The Temple way roundabout is half the size it needed to be, the incline is still the entrance to Temple Meads, and the area of land to the back of the old station is still a car park. and the BCC metro well another dream they woke up from.

There was going to be a Calatravi bridge over the river with a ferry terminal and path leading to a metro interchange that then lead on into a new entrance to Temple Meads, there would of been a multi storey car park in the Temple Quay development to replace the existing gravel car park. It would of been nice.

But BR would not of got the car parking fees another stumbling block.

I could go on and on about this, a committee of power hungry quangos trying to reach a decision on a design. The result, nothing and the incline basically as it always was.