The “Old King William Hotel”

Dating from around 1870, and built as a public house, No.1 William Street  remained a hostelry until 1940. Triangular in plan with one face on William Street, and another on Cambridge Street, the Old King William Hotel building has played an important role in shaping the social identity of Lower Totterdown through its varied tenants.

Redcliffe Radio were the first occupants after the beer taps and kegs had been removed.  One of Bristol’s highest of high-tech firms, which subsequently became Redcliffe Magtronics[1]  Redcliffe Radio was established in 1931. Originally based under the former Victoria Street railway arches (now the Dragonara Hotel site), after being bombed out in the Bristol blitz, the company with its 25 employees moved to No.1 William Street sometime after 1940.

Redcliffe Radio was very much involved in “war work” and developed the then new transistor technology for specialist radio and radar products before moving into transformers and then magtronics. For a time, half the firm was sited at Bristol University’s Royal Fort where the radar development work was carried out while at William Street other delicate work was being done. As the building’s gas central heating was found to corrode the delicate products, an alternative form of heating had to be used instead, which involved the staff having to move huge amounts of coal from bottom to top of the building.

The company began working on submarine technologies for the MOD – this is when it made its first links with Rolls Royce. At the start of the 1960s, with around 150 staff, the company grew too big for 1 William Street and moved to Emery Road, Brislington. From its hi-tech beginnings on Pylle Hill the company moved on to making ticket machines for the London Underground, then pound note changing machines and roulette wheels.

Mervyn Lear, long time employee, began work with Redcliffe Radio in Totterdown in 1955 as a youngster. Redcliffe added the ‘bit at the top’ of the building which was used as a store for parts and components and workspace for 6 workers, including Melvyn. He remembers there was a fire escape out onto the roof. The King William had originally had a bowling alley in the cellar which Redcliffe took over for stores and this was accessed by a spiral staircase. The cellar was below ground at the front but because of the Cambridge Street hill, it was parallel with the road at the back of the shop. Later on it became a metal store and even later, Redcliffe serviced radiation detectors for Harwell in it. Redcliffe also had what Mervyn called the ‘top shop’, the present house on the corner of Cambridge and Hill Street.

Older Totterdown people say ‘hush hush’ work was being done in Totterdown and Redcliffe’s black vans with their distinctive gold lettering had their presence around Pylle Hill. The hush hush work was not top secret but was certainly restricted information as Redcliffe continued working on transformers and then developed the fastest oscilloscope (which looks for cosmic waveforms and shows them on a camera) of the time for the Atomic Energy Authority, which in those days were huge pieces of equipment. Other work was in developing underwater weaponry for the Admiralty.    

Mervyn calculates that the Redcliffe operation moved from 1 William Street to Emery Road some time after 1957 although the building was kept on for another eight years or so for storage of components and around four people stayed here, servicing transformers. The firm’s magnetics operations then began with the production of magnetised speakers, motors, (magnetised after being put together), security tags for clothes stores, security systems and all manner of electrical circuitry which Mervyn designed. Future 4-seater magnetised cars for Heathrow are still in the pipeline.

Amba took over 1 William Street in the late 1970s, bringing to an end a long period of unuse. Amba was a small business making things for hospitals – anti-static clogs for operating theatre staff and medical record sheets for doctors. Eric Baldwin who contributed his recollections of those early days says that when Amba first moved into 1 William Street, ‘our insurance company wanted all the usual security devices fitted, including bars on the windows. When we explained that we did not think that the walls were strong enough to hold bars, they said OK and we never had a break in.’ Then Amba became more ambitious and grew, moving first to Bedminster around 1980 and subsequently to Netham.

Glasnost Bistro: In July 1988, the first Glasnost opened its doors at no 1 William Street, owned by Magnus McDonald. Magnus explained that Glasnost was not a Russian restaurant, but that Glasnost translated as ‘openness’ and ‘new beginnings’, He hoped it might play a part in ‘helping Totterdown after its abusive past’. (This refers to the 1960s road planning blunder which resulted in the unnecessary demolition of one third of Totterdown and blighted the locality for 20 years.) There was significant community support for this new venture.

During its first years Glasnost was connected with the Glass Boat floating restaurant for which it prepared the food. Glasnost the Café was open seven days a week and served light meals from breakfast onwards including ‘soup and cheese and our own made speciality sausages and casseroles. 95% of our staff live in Totterdown and care about what happens to the area, especially its newest and oldest generations.’ In the evenings, Glasnost was transformed in a bistro serving more adventurous cooking.

The Hard Ecu and then Uncle Sam’s restaurants followed the demise of Glasnost. Both had a fleeting existence at 1 William Street between 1990-94. Customers were encouraged to take their washing along so it could be laundered whilst they ate their meal at Uncle Sam’s. Unsurprisingly this offer appeared not to be a commercial success.

Glasnost: another incarnation of this returned to 1 William Street in 1994 under the management of Andy Murray, the chef from the Glass Boat restaurant, which became very successful. It was taken over by Matt and Nicola Crossley, former workers in the restaurant and Glasnost got featured in the Sunday style magazines and enthusiastically reviewed by Venue, which wrote: LSW’s crème brulee disappears faster than an ice cube in the Sahara. As do our freebie chocolate truffles, which precede our homeward bound descent of Totterdown’s North Face.

Global warming seemed to have affect this north face and the second Glasnost went into meltdown in 2006 but has been replaced by the Thali Café which continues the peculiar tale of No.1 William Street.

The Victorian Totterdown Gospel Hall

                                         The Gospel Hall  Bellvue Road 'front' 2009

Muller’s subsequent work was multi-faceted, always evangelical with a focus on the care of orphans, of whom there were many in Bristol because of the cholera and Typhoid death toll. The sole funds which supported this work came in as donations and church collections. The dissemination of bibles, religious tracts and evangelistic preaching (including outdoors, in the manner of Wycliffe) were another component of Muller’s life’s work.

Muller founded other chapels, at Alma Road, the Salem Chapel in Hardy Road, Bedminster, another on Stokes Croft and one in Brislington, as well as the Gospel Hall on Pylle Hill.  There is no record of Muller himself having preached on Pylle Hill, but certainly the Hall was founded following a mission beginning in 1880 held in a tent on the adjoining site by his followers. The assembly grew and the first Hall was built in 1882 by the grandfather of Graham Spencer who now owns the Hall. It was ceremonially opened by leading members of the Orphan Home.

The Totterdown Gospel Hall fronts onto Belleview Road but it was extended in 1887 with the addition of a long intercommunicating corridor leading to a back entrance on Cambridge Street, number 2 having been purchased for £230 for the purpose, giving Totterdown unique access from two sides of the block. This back entrance looks out onto No 1. William Street and for many years the alcohol serving Old King William Hotel and the strictly teetol Gospel community faced each other across narrow Cambridge Street.

Many older Totterdown people remember attending services at the Gospel Hall because in its heyday in the 1930s/40s, 300 local children were members. In the 1980s it still had 45 adult members and a Sunday School. Social events were frequent– Totterdown was renowned for its children’s work. Beryl Stallabrass, nowadays Admin and Finance manager for the Muller Foundation, and her family lived in Totterdown in the 1950s. Beryl recalls Tuesday night children’s meetings entertained by Uncle Tom and his accordion, at which events children were converted; the Hall decorated with Easter eggs at Easter and flowers at other times of the year and the annual outing to Swanage when two coaches were required. Beryl was a member of the Young Sowers League involved in planting the seeds of belief in other youngsters.