New Street Flats (Former Quaker Workhouse)

This former workhouse was built for and by the Quakers in 1698-1700. It later served as a school and Mission House during the 19th century, and was converted to council flats in the 20th century.

Construction and Materials

The building is constructed of Pennant stone rubble brought to courses. The 19th-century block has freestone quoins, though the entire building is now covered in cement render. The windows were replaced around the mid-20th century; before this they were freestone cross windows with hoodmoulds. The roof was also replaced in the mid-20th century and is now clad with concrete pantiles.

Plan and Layout

The building was originally U-shaped in plan around a courtyard. An additional block was added in the mid-19th century across the open south-east end of the courtyard. The building stands 2½ storeys with a basement.

Exterior

The north-west elevation has an 8-window range with 4 dormers. The side ranges each have 6-window ranges with 3 dormers. The 19th-century block is also of 6 bays but sits back from the courtyard and does not extend across the returns of the side ranges. Cantilevered walkways were added around 1930 to the inner courtyard walls at first and second floor levels.

Interior

The interior was refurbished and reordered in 1928 when the building was converted into flats. Plans from this period show that the stairs and some partitions were added then. A Bristol and Region Archaeological Services report notes the presence of blocked-in fireplaces in some of the flats, which may be original.

Historical Development

A committee of Friends was appointed in 1696 to establish a workhouse in the city, intended to provide work for poor unemployed Quaker weavers and to educate children. A site was agreed upon in 1697 which lay outside the old city boundary and, until the early 20th century when it was culverted, was bounded by the River Frome to the north. A building committee was appointed in 1698, and minutes of a meeting in October 1699 state that construction was nearly complete and some Friends were already in occupancy. The total cost of building and setting up the workhouse was £1,300. A paved footpath laid down to provide access from the east of the city at Lawford's Gate was being referred to as 'New Street' by 1705. At around the same time a Friends' burial ground was established immediately to the east of the workhouse.

Millerd's map of around 1715 shows a 2½ storey U-shaped building. Roque's map of 1742 depicts an H-shaped building, marked as 'Quaker Work H', as does Donne's map of 1773. These extra wings were probably weaving sheds, and the large-scale 1828 Plumley and Ashmead map clearly shows the building to be U-shaped with two small rear extensions.

Initially the residents earned money through the production of cantaloons, a type of woollen cloth. Orders from the 1700s survive in Bristol Record Office, as do samples of the product, but by 1721 production had ceased. A school was also established in the building at some point early on. An inventory of 1771 lists 17 residents as well as details of household goods and organisation of the building: two wings and a central range with living accommodation in the attics and at first floor level, and a dining room, meeting room, committee room and kitchen and service rooms on the ground floor.

J.P. Sturge & Sons surveyed Friends' properties in Bristol in 1861 and noted that the site was 'used as an asylum for poor friends'. In 1867 the south-east block was added and the courtyard roofed over to create a hall. By this time the building, still owned and run by the Quakers, was in use as a boys and infants school as well as housing the New Street Mission. An insurance plan of 1896 describes the building as being of 2½ storeys with a tiled roof. Photographs from the early 20th century show freestone cross windows with hoodmoulds to both windows and doorways and single dormers to the attics.

The Quakers' ownership of the building ended in 1929 when it was refurbished as 17 flats for the Bristol Churches Tenements Association. This work, to plans produced by local architect C.F.W. Dening, resulted in an extensive rebuilding of the interior. The flats were again refurbished in the 1960s when the building was transferred to the council. A new meeting house was built in 1958 on the site of the burial ground and this is still in use today.

Context and Significance

The Quakers had their own systems of administering to their poor during the 17th century, with each Monthly Meeting being responsible for its own paupers. The emphasis was on self-help by providing work for impoverished Friends, but not necessarily rehousing them. The Quakers produced numerous pamphlets during this time based on their experiences, with proposals, sometimes ambitious in scale, for institutions which would care for the sick and elderly and educate and train the young. The Quaker workhouse in Clerkenwell (1702) was well-documented at the time, and although the building no longer survives, much is known about its organisation and occupants. Its development runs parallel with that of Bristol, having been initiated in 1697, using an existing building to house 56 old Friends and orphans.

The Quakers were not alone in their attempts to provide poor relief and were part of an intellectual movement from the mid-17th century onwards which sought to advocate various forms of relief based on experiences and experiments across the country. The Quakers were also closely involved with the establishment of institutions outside of their community, particularly in Bristol; by the end of the 17th century, the city had a higher percentage of Friends within its population than anywhere else in the country. At around the same time as the establishment of their own workhouse, Quaker involvement in the foundation of the Bristol Corporation Workhouse (1696, known as the Bristol Mint and using an existing early-17th-century house) was substantial and many of the founding committee members were Friends.

This building is one of the earliest known surviving purpose-built workhouses in the country and is potentially the oldest surviving workhouse of U-shaped plan. It is the earliest, and perhaps only, known surviving example of a workhouse constructed for and by the Quakers. There is good documentary evidence regarding the 18th-century occupants of the building, their work and the organisation of the workhouse. It reflects the ambition of the large Quaker community of Bristol in the late 17th century and demonstrates continuity of use for philanthropic purpose into the mid-20th century.