Travel Hotwells Map

Travel to Hotwells Map

Hotwells tourist guide map of landmarks & destinations by Walkfo

Hotwells history

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Hotwells takes its name from the hot springs which bubble up through the rocks of the Avon Gorge underneath the Clifton Suspension Bridge. The springs were documented in 1480 by William Worcester, the 15th century chronicler and antiquary. He described the waters as being milky and as warm as those at Bath. By c.1630 the water of Hotwells was becoming known for its medical properties, both in its original form and when used to brew beer. Thomas Fuller, who had been a student of Dr Samuel Ward in the late 1620s, reported that ‘beer brewed thereof is wholesome against the spleen; and Dr. Samuel Ward, afflicted with that malady, and living in Sidney College, was prescribed the constant drinking thereof, though it was costly to bring it through the Severn and narrow seas to Lynn, and thence by the river to Cambridge.’ In 1650 Dr Venner recommended Hotwells water for those ‘who have hot livers, feeble brains, and red pimply faces’ and after 1680 the water became well known as cure for diabetes. The physician Alexander Sutherland, published a summary account of the qualities of Hotwells water in 1773, typically known by that time as “Bristol Water”. Sutherland says of it that “BRISTOL-WATER received in a glass, appears, to the naked eye, colourless, pellucid, and manifestly impregnated with Air, sparkling and bounding through its substance, in the form of little bubbles, as if the whole had been in a ferment.” He says the water tasted “particularly pleasant and soft” was “quite inodorous” and “lukewarm” only, rising from the pump at a constant 76° Fahrenheit. In 1692 the Society of Merchant Venturers leased the springs and a pump room was built. The pump room of 1696 was demolished and replaced by Hotwells House in 1816 which was itself demolished when the river was widened in 1867. In the Georgian era, Hotwells was developed as a spa including the building of Dowry Square in an attempt to compete with Bath. Many visitors came, including the diarist John Evelyn and the travel writer Celia Fiennes, who hunted for Bristol Diamonds in the gorge. The Somerset historian John Collinson came to Hotwells in 1793 seeking recovery from an unspecified lingering illness and died there on 27 August 1793. During the 18th century Hotwells Water was extensively bottled and exported. Daniel Defoe noted in 1724 that there were over 15 glass-houses in Bristol, ‘which are more than in London…and vast numbers of bottles are used for sending the water of the Hotwell not only over England but all over the world.” Alexander Pope was another admirer, claiming in 1739 that ‘I am satisfied that the water at the Well is different from what it is anywhere else.’ Later customers of the water included Admiral Horatio Nelson, whose correspondence includes references to his purchase of Bristol water in 1798. Known for his abstemious habits, it was said ‘He never exceeded four glasses of wine after dinner, and seldom drank three; and even those were diluted with either common or Bristol water.’ The Jacobs Well Theatre, built in 1729, provided entertainment for visitors and Bristolians, however Hotwells never attained the same status as Bath. In the 1790s ‘the celebrated hot mineral spring, denominated the Bristol Hotwell’ still featured in tourist guides. However, the spa went into decline during the Napoleonic Wars and by 1816 a local physician said of Hotwells that ‘It has the silence of the grave, to which it seems the inlet. Not a carriage to be seen once an hour, and scarcely more frequently does a solitary invalid approach the neglected spring.’ A new pump room was built in 1822, but was demolished in 1867 to allow for widening of the River Avon. A new pump was set up in 1877 and continued in use till 1913. However, the pump appears not to have tapped into the original spring. When it became clear that the pump’s waters were polluted, the pipe was sealed off. There were trial borings in 1913 and 1925 to relocate the original spring, but these were unsuccessful. In 1799, the physician Thomas Beddoes opened the Pneumatic Institution in Dowry Square. Free treatment was advertised for those suffering from consumption, asthma, dropsy, “obstinate Venereal Complaints” and scrophula. The laboratory superintendent was Humphry Davy, who investigated nitrous oxide, also known as laughing gas, using equipment designed by James Watt. Under Davy’s supervision laughing gas parties were held, attended by guests such as Robert Southey, Thomas Wedgwood and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. In the 20th century much of the housing in Hotwells was in a poor state of repair, but since the 1970s there has been refurbishment of the older Georgian properties and new housing built on derelict dockside wharves and along the Hotwell Road.

  

Hotwells map & travel guide with history & landmarks to explore

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Tourist Guide to Hotwells Map

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Walkfo Hotwells travel map key: visit National Trust sites, Blue Plaques, English Heritage locations & top travel destinations in Hotwells