Several old buildings survive, including the Unitarian Chapel constructed in the late 18th century,[1] an old sugar house[2] and the ancient thoroughfare known as Christmas Steps.

The area was situated outside the medieval city walls and was partly occupied by the estate of St Bartholomew's Hospital and also by Greyfriars, Bristol.

In the late seventeenth century a Presbyterian Chapel, was established and then destroyed by a mob led by the attorney John Hellier, following the passage of the Conventicles Act 1670, which forbade nonconformist religious worship.

[4] A sugar refinery was constructed in the eighteenth century to process molasses brought to Bristol as part of the Atlantic slave trade.

[9] The area is now dominated by residential apartment buildings and tall office blocks and is split by busy main roads.