Catalogue description The Bristol Commercial Rooms

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Shareholders and members

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Bristol Commercial Rooms

Received on deposit per Mr. Stuart Wyton

The establishment of the Commercial Rooms, Corn Street, grew out of the desire of businessmen and merchants of Bristol to have a meeting place where transactions could be carried out in comfort, and which subscribers could use as a social and business centre. The exchange is Corn Street had provided this facility to some extent, but the Commercial Rooms proved on opening to be a far more popular venue for such activities.

A committee was established in 1808 to consider the foundation of the "Commercial Coffee Rooms", and at a meeting in November of that year the sum of £10,000, the estimated requirement, was guaranteed within 24 hours.

The foundation stone was laid on the 19th March 1810, and the Rooms opened to subscribers in October 1811. The first President was John Loudon McAdam, the Road Surveyor to the Bristol Turnpike Trust, later to become famous as the inventor of the "macadam" road surface which transformed the turnpike roads.

The fine building, in the Grecian style, was designed by Charles Augustus Busby, and was his first important commission. In 1976 the building was restored and redecorated.

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