The Clock with Two Minute Hands

Look up at the front of the Corn Exchange building and you will see there is a big clock with two minute hands: one black, one red. It is a clock with an interesting tale behind.





The clock was installed in 1822 showing the local time in Bristol. As Bristol is located 200kms west to London, sun rises and sets about 10 minutes later. Therefore, Bristol and London did not have the same time. Having such different times was common until the arrival of the railway and the introduction of new means of communication.


It soon became apparent that an agreement would have to be reached on exactly when trains arrived and departed. Bristolians needed to know when the trains were running. Thus, began the concept of Greenwich Mean Time and an extra hand was added to the central clock. Therefore, each station would have two clocks: one showing the local time (black) while the other hand pointed to "Railway Time" (red).


Today, nobody uses "Bristol Time", of course. Bristol officially adopted railway time on 14th September 1852 but the red hand is still an interesting remain of past times.




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THIS EVENING, 3rd July, there is the St Nick's Night Market with street food, musicians and circus performances. Pop up between 5.30-9.30pm! :)




WEBSITE: http://bristolnightmarket.com/