Wine Street & Castle Street, Old City
24 November 1940 · Bristol, Bristol
View this record on the map →- Date
- 24 November 1940
- Record type
- Historic bombing site
- Bomb type
- incendiary
- Casualties
- 207
- Location
- Bristol, Bristol
- Position accuracy
- Confirmed event, street-derived point
What happened
The first and most destructive raid of the Bristol Blitz. Around 135 to 148 aircraft attacked for roughly four and a half hours, dropping some 156 tonnes of high explosive and about 12,500 incendiaries. The medieval shopping heart of the city around Castle Street, Wine Street and Mary-le-Port Street burned out.
Also worth knowing
That quarter was never rebuilt; the ground is now Castle Park, which is why the modern map shows open green space where the city centre used to be. Casualty figures vary between sources — 207 killed and 187 seriously injured is the most commonly cited, while John Penny's archival study gives 200 killed and 689 injured.