The Temperance Movement in Bath and Bristol : Alan Clarke : BRLSI Lecture, Thursday 10th October 2024

From Hogarth’s vivid depiction of the gin craze and as pubs and beer shops grew up in Victorian England there arose a desire for self-improvement combined with Evangelicalism as an alternative. This led to taking the pledge for temperance becoming a movement for total abstinence by the 1830s and the talk will cover its origins and evolution, looking at how the various organisations in Bath and Bristol grew, the institutions created, the relationship with religious denominations and national politics and the slow decline in national affairs during the early 20th century.

The Rebecca drinking fountain by the Abbey in Bath is just one example of what is left from the many branches of the Temperance Movement that evolved, including Temperance Halls, Coffee Houses and Hotels, and the wide range of activities undertaken by temperance societies.

Alan Clarke has lived and worked in Bristol for over forty years, as a student, an insurance clerk, a trade union official and and a teacher of English as a foreign language. His first degree was in English with London University in the 1980s and since the 1990s he has been a long-term student with the Open University, most recently gaining his M.A. in history for work on the temperance movement.