[4] In 1747 the cleric John Wesley collided with a cart while passing through St Nicholas Gate on his way to a preaching engagement, and was shot over his horse's head 'as an arrow from a bow'.

[5] It was clear however that improvement was needed, and in 1760 a bill was passed through parliament primarily to replace Bristol Bridge, but also allowing for the removal of St Nicholas Gate and the rebuilding of the church.

[5][6] Puritan diarist Nehemiah Wallington describes Bristol Bridge and High Street in the 17th century as containing the chief shops of mercers, silkmen and linen drapers.

[13][14] Post-war plans to build a riverside hotel and exhibition centre on High Street were quietly dropped on cost grounds, and new premises for the Bank of England and the Norwich Union Insurance Company were built in their place.

[12][2] The east side of High Street 'has a lax, dissipated air, its former tension bled away on expanses of shabby paving'.

[16] The redevelopment of this area 'offer[s] perhaps the greatest potential of any site in the city to demonstrate the ambition of Bristol and to realise a connected and coherent historic core'.