University College, Bristol was an educational institution which existed from 1876 to 1909. It was the predecessor institution to the University of Bristol, which gained a royal charter in 1909. During its time the college mainly served the middle classes of Bristol, and catered for young men who had entered a family business and needed a greater understanding of scientific topics.
Origins
The history of University College, Bristol and ultimately the University of Bristol can be traced as far back as 1872 and the attempts of John Percival, a local educationalist and headmaster of Clifton College, to press for the creation of a college. Percival was a supporter of the education of women, having founded an Association for the Promotion of the Higher Education of Women in 1868, and an Association for the Promotion of Evening Classes a year later. Percival's strong Christian religious views (he later became a bishop) influenced his views on education, in that he believed that opportunities should be available to both males and females irrespective of their declared faith. He is credited with the initial idea that there should be a university in Bristol. Lewis Fry, a later influence on the college and the subsequent university, is quoted as saying that it was to Pervical that they owed the foundation of the college.
In 1872 Percival wrote a letter to the Oxford colleges noting the lack of a university culture in the provinces. He also canvassed support when Bristol Medical School was looking for a new building and in 1873 he suggested to the Medical School Council that they both approach the Bristol Museum and Library Society to attempt to establish a college. This allowed the creation of a committee to promote the scheme led by the dean of Bristol, which contained prominent Bristol politicians from the Liberal and Conservative Parties and members representing local industry. It was in July 1876 that the medical school agreed to affiliate with the college in return for the promise that it would be supplied with additional space to expand, a promise which was eventually honoured three years later. This building now houses the University of Bristol's Department of Geography.
In 1873 Percival wrote a pamphlet entitled The Connection of the Universities and the Great Towns which was met with a positive response from Benjamin Jowett, a connection of Percival, who at this time was the Master of Balliol College. His promise of sponsorship initially helped the project. It was Percival's connections with the colleges of the Oxford which helped in lobbying for the creation of the university. Percival was able to agree that the Master of Balliol College would subscribe £300 to the project, on the terms that adult education was catered for and that the college catered for the arts as well as the sciences.
On 11 June 1874 the Victoria Rooms hosted a meeting to promote what was described as a College of Science and Literature for the West of England and South Wales. The meeting was attended by the then president of the British Association and Sir William Thompson (later Lord Kelvin). This meeting has been described as a partial success, as it gained the support of Albert Fry and Lewis Fry, members of the influential Fry family (the Fry name being known for the chocolate business set up by their grandfather and developed by their father Joseph Storrs Fry). Lewis Fry was a Quaker, lawyer and later a Liberal and Unionist Member of Parliament from 1885 to 1892 and 1895 to 1890 for the constituency Bristol North. Albert Fry also gained distinction as the founder of the Bristol Wagon & Carriage Works Co. However, the fact that the project attracted large numbers of Quakers, Non-Conformists and Liberals meant that the project was labelled as such an institution. Tories made some initial grants to the project but soon focused their interest on a rival institution through the Society of Merchant Venturers which was considered mostly Conservative in politics. Ironically, the Society of Merchant Venturers, which was to become a rival institution during much of the college's history, made a gift of £1000 at this point.