Anyone driving along the Bath Road today and seeing the B&M store in Brislington would have no idea that it stands on the site of Brislington’s first hotel and nightclub.
On an evening in March 1931, a reporter from the Wells Journal was driving from Bath to Bristol and noticed an “old country house”, floodlit, with a large neon sign reading “The Lido Spa”. This was the Georgian mansion, Brislington Hall, which had been the main family home of the Clayfield-Irelands, who were the largest landowners in Brislington for over 150 years. The Irelands (after 1827, the Clayfield-Irelands) came to Brislington from Dorset in the 1770s and became self-styled “Squires of Brislington” until the death of the last Squire, Alfred Clayfield Ireland, in 1923 (my claim to fame: my maternal grandfather was once Squire Ireland’s postman).
Alfred was one of 13 siblings, all of whom died childless, and only two of whom married. The Brislington estate was left to a distant cousin, Lieutenant Colonel James St George Priaulx Armstrong, who already owned large estates in Scotland and Ireland. He sold off the properties, including other large houses, farms, cottages, and land, to the highest bidder.
In February 1926, at an auction at the White Hart, Brislington Hill, Brislington Hall was sold to Henry Russett, who ran a haulage contracting business on Bath Road, Totterdown, near where the Turnpike pub stands today. Since the Clayfield-Irelands had left, Brislington Hall had stood empty, cared for by long-serving family retainers. The lodge of the Hall, at the junction of West Town Lane, was demolished to build Crittall’s Windows factory in 1927, on the site now occupied by the Lidl store. Other factories later opened, forming what became Brislington Trading Estate. The 20-acre gardens and parkland were developed for industrial use, and the Hungerford Road council estate was built in the mid-1950s.
The Wells Journal reporter referred to Brislington Hall as a “fine old manor house” and noted the “raised swing dance floor with a glorious surface”. Guests danced to Vic Edmond’s band, which played popular hits of the day such as Dancing in the Dark, Goodnight Sweetheart, and Happy Days Are Here Again. Taking to the floor was the West of England Dance Champion, Mr R. Pugsley, described as “the very essence of grace and deportment”. The newspaper article continued that The Lido Spa was “beautifully decorated and furnished” and was a “very luxurious hotel”, with weekly dances for the modest sum of three shillings.
“This Lido Spa is going to be popular,” concluded the article.
The first major event was a St Patrick’s Day Carnival Supper and Dance arranged by Captain G. Rogers Hart, with a special prize of dinner for two at Café Monico, Shaftesbury Avenue (one of London’s leading restaurants for 144 years until it closed in 2021), for the best couple in a fox-trot dance competition. Tickets for the dance (7s 6d single, 14 shillings double) were on sale from Miss M. Lawrence of the Dunelm School of Dancing, 11 Great George Street.
It was announced that a swimming pool would be added later, but this never happened.
The manager of The Lido Spa was William Thomas, formerly of 23 Marlborough Buildings, Bath, where he had run the “Russell Wireless Treatment” since 1922. This was later transferred to The Lido Spa in August 1931 from “Hillylands”, a Victorian villa in Weston Park. This medical electrical treatment was said to cure “uric acid, nerve troubles, nervousness, neuralgia, rheumatism, neurasthenia, gout, sciatica, lumbago, paralysis, constipation, deafness and general debility”.
The Lido Spa was advertised as a venue for wedding receptions, garden parties, club dinners, business functions, private events, balls, and dances. One couple who held their wedding reception there were Cyril Pomeroy, a 33-year-old widower of Hampton Road, Redland, and Olive Bosanquet, aged 25, of 44 Sandy Park Road. They were married at St Luke’s Church, Brislington, on 27 July 1931. Popular soprano Madame Hilda Lewis sang at the service.
For many years, Madame Lewis sang at religious events throughout Somerset, Gloucestershire, and Hampshire. In July 1936, she sang at the opening ceremony of the new extension to St Anne’s Park Methodist Church in Langton Court Road (demolished in 1982 to make way for St Anne’s Court flats).
The bridegroom was a commercial traveller for Bristol timber merchants Wickham and Norris.
Sadly, The Lido Spa had a short life and closed in 1932. The reasons are unknown, but may have included mismanagement or financial difficulties. Whatever the cause, Brislington Hall was demolished in 1933.
During the days of the Clayfield-Irelands, the grounds had hosted many village celebrations, including royal jubilees, weddings, and coronations, with the last national celebration being Peace Day in 1919. The gardens were even visited by foreign royalty when the Queen of Portugal visited in 1828.
All visual traces of Brislington Hall’s former glory, both as a grand Georgian house and as a 1930s hotel and nightclub, have now vanished forever, but its history lives on.
Jonathan Rowe, 2026
Brislington Community News 